Atiq Rahimi's latest novel
In his new novel, Atiq Rahimi raises the question of what constitutes a "just" murder. In a world etched by terrorism, legal uncertainty and the daily struggle for survival, is vigilante justice a legitimate form of resistance? The author needs less than 300 pages to explore this question in the form of a novel. Volker Kaminski reports More »
The 13th Sufi Soul Festival
Once a year, on the last weekend before Ramadan, a hotel in a village in north-western Germany plays host to the "Sufi Soul Festival". Anyone who is interested is welcome to come and sample a wide variety of music genres: from hard rock to ballads and from Pakistani folk to Arab a-cappella. Marian Brehmer visited the festival in the Eifel region More »
Syria's Ancient Treasures and Historical Sites
Syria's unique ancient treasures are another victim of the escalating conflict. With no regard for their historical significance for the country and the world, museums are being plundered, works of art sold off and ancient, Byzantine and medieval archaeological sites shelled and stripped of their treasures. Andreas Kilb reports More »
Comics Artists in the Arab World
Many of the Arab comics and graphic novels produced before and during the Arab Spring are both critical of society and politically provocative. Despite the uprisings in the region, difficult working conditions and the strict constraints of media censorship still pose a big problem for the rebellious artists. A report by Charlotte Bank More »
Interview with the Lebanese Composer and Oud Player Mahmoud Turkmani
The 47-year-old musician and composer Mahmoud Turkmani was a highly accomplished oud player as a boy. As a young man, he rebelled against his upbringing and became a Communist. He left Beirut during the civil war and studied classical guitar at the Moscow Conservatory. From his adoptive home in Switzerland, he now enriches both Western and Eastern music with unorthodox works that fuse traditional and experimental elements and defy all categorization. Stefan Franzen met the artist More »
Interview with Atiq Rahimi
In an interview with Shikiba Babori, the exiled Afghan author Atiq Rahimi criticizes the West's donor mentality in reconstructing Afghanistan and the indolence of the Afghan people, who he says have grown too accustomed to depending on foreign aid More »
Abdellah Taïa's Novel ''The Day of the King''
In his most recent novel, Le jour du Roi (The Day of the King), which has just been published in German translation, the Moroccan author Abdellah Taïa once again takes the reader back to the "leaden years", Morocco's dark days under the former ruler Hassan II. Claudia Kramatschek sends us this review More »
Interview with Etel Adnan
Etel Adnan, the grand dame of Middle Eastern literature, is the epitome of cosmopolitanism: throughout her life, she has oscillated between one country, one language, and one genre and another. dOCUMENTA (13) dedicated an entire retrospective to this exceptional poet, writer, and painter. Vera Kern travelled to Kassel to meet the 87-year-old More »
Cinema Jenin on the West Bank
In his documentary film "Cinema Jenin," director Marcus Vetter portrays the revival of a run-down movie theatre on the West Bank. But a cinema is not enough to bring back normality. By Bernd Sobolla More »
''Razor Film'' Production on the Middle East
For ten years now, Razor Film in Berlin has been producing films that have provoked audiences and intentionally broken political taboos. With the films "Paradise Now" and "Waltz with Bashir", the small production company achieved a cinematic breakthrough. It will soon release its first film from Saudi Arabia. By Andrea Horakh More »
