Understanding Prison
MENA Prison Forum in Berlin
Concert “Music behind Sednaya's Bars: Performing Songs from Sednaya Prison in Syria (1980s-1990s)” / with Asaad Shlash, Ibrahim Byrakdar, Kesra Kurdi, Haitham Alkatreb, Hassan Abd Alrahman, Adnan Hassan / Introduction: Eylaf Bader Eddin / Arabic with English surtitles
Talk “Syria between Prison, Exile and Accountability” / with Yassin Al Haj Saleh, Lynn Maalouf (Office of the UN Special Envoy for Syria) & Joumana Seif (ECCHR) / Moderation: Bente Scheller (Heinrich Böll Foundation) / English and Arabic with English and Arabic simultaneous translation
- Dialogue
- Music
Arabic /
Arabic simultaneous translation /
English /
English simultaneous translation /
With English surtitles /
approx. 120 mins.
The MENA Prison Forum is dedicated to researching prison culture in the MENA region. The interdisciplinary, international network includes former prisoners, filmmakers, academics and activists from various countries. Together with medico international and HAU, the organisers are presenting parts of their work as a series of events at HAU which takes place instead of a conference planned for December 2023. In a mixture of concert and discourse, on 27 November the focus will be on Sednaya Prison. To counter the oppressive soundscape in the cells of the notorious prison in Syria, a group of political prisoners founded a music group there 30 years ago. They built their instruments from leftover food, clothing threads and other prison materials. After several decades, the musicians recently came together again and will now play their songs live for the first time on replicas of the instruments originally built in prison. Afterwards, the panelists will discuss the long history of imprisonment, torture and human rights crimes in Syria, which have taken on a whole new dimension since the bloody suppression of the 2011 revolution and the ongoing civil war.
The series will continue in February, April and June 2025 at HAU.
Dates
Past
Credits
A cooperation by MENA Prison Forum, medico international and HAU Hebbel am Ufer. Supported by: Heinrich-Böll-Stiftung.
Location
HAU1
Stresemannstr. 29, 10963 BerlinThere are two marked parking spots in front of the building. Access to the Parkett by means of a separate entrance with lift when necessary. Barrier-free restroom facilities are available. Tickets for wheelchair users and accompanying persons can be booked via the ticketing system. If you need any help, please contact our Ticketing & Service team at +49 (0)30 259004-27 or send us an email at
tickets@hebbel-am-ufer.de.
