Natalie Amiri: Der Nahost-Komplex

In the organizer's words:

Of people, dreams and destruction - the author in conversation with Navid Kermani

A few days after the fall of the Assad regime, Natalie Amiri traveled to Syria and met people who breathed a sigh of relief for the moment. In Lebanon, for example, which could be able to act politically again for the first time following the massive weakening of Hezbollah. Her journey took her on to Israel, where she spoke with the former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert. In the occupied West Bank, in the shadow of the Gaza war, she met Basel Adra, Oscar winner of the documentary "No other land".

Nathalie Amiri conducted dozens of interviews throughout the region. She evokes empathy for all sides and thus mediates between the worlds.

Natalie Amiri, born in Munich in 1978 to a German mother and an Iranian father, studied Oriental Studies and Islamic Studies at the Otto Friedrich University in Bamberg. A scholarship took her to the universities of Tehran and Damascus. She presents "ARD-Weltspiegel" from Munich and headed the ARD office in Tehran for five years. In 2022 and 2024, she was named Political Journalist of the Year by "medium magazin".

Navid Kermani lives as a freelance writer in Cologne. He has received numerous awards for his novels, essays and reportages, including the Kleist Prize, the Joseph Breitbach Prize, the Honorary Prize of the Cologne Culture Prize (2012), the Peace Prize of the German Book Trade in 2015 and the Marion Dönhoff Prize (2016) as well as the Bürgerpreis der deutschen Zeitungen (2016).

Price information:

Admission costs 8 euros, concessions 6 euros, 4 euros with a disabled pass. Tickets are available in advance from kölnticket. Remaining tickets may be available at the Box Office.