Unzensiert: Briefe aus dem Iran

In the organizer's words:

ISLAND
Uncensored: Letters from Iran
Artists under the mullah regime
INSEL reading and talk
Sunday / April 26, 2026 / 6 pm (Admission: 5:30 pm)
Free admission. Donations are requested.

The German-Iranian artist Mehrdad Zaeri in conversation with Torsten Krug. Julia Wolff will read.

"Words do not help. And yet they are all we have. They shape actions. And sometimes these actions are directed against us - like missiles made of language, shot into the night sky."

The bloodily suppressed uprisings of the people in Iran took place several weeks ago. But the repression in this "theocracy" continues. Events are currently coming thick and fast, and every day this event takes on a new, and by no means less meaning. Writers, filmmakers and other artists are also suffering under the lack of freedom of the mullah regime. The German-Iranian Mehrdad Zaeri will discuss what this means in conversation with author and director Torsten Krug in Wuppertal on April 26. Actress Julia Wolff will read from uncensored, previously unpublished letters written by a Persian author to Mehrdad Zaeri, who has translated her impressive texts:
"My Iranian friend is an author and journalist. As she has not been allowed to work publicly as a writer for years, she writes scripts for films in the background and produces her own podcast series. We've never met in the 'real world'. She has been writing to me about her everyday life for about ten years. She lets me understand the inner and outer life of a young woman in today's urban Tehran. I myself, living in democratic Germany, in Mannheim, am a book illustrator, storyteller and street artist. Together with my wife Christina Laube, I have been realizing large-format drawings on house facades under the name DUO SOURATI (Persian meaning: old pink) since 2016."

Admission is free. Donations for the Iranian author are requested.

An event organized by the Else Lasker-Schüler-Gesellschaft in cooperation with INSEL.

Price information:

Donations are requested for the Iranian author.