‘On Which Wind Will You Ride ?’

Director Seyed Kamaleddin Hashemi paints a portrait of five refugees in this Iranian epic. They are hiding out in a forest on the border between two countries. Like Homer's Odysseus, or Esfandiar, hero of the epic Persian poem ‘Shahnama’, they have many obstacles to overcome before reaching their destination. The border – blurred and indefinite – is the symbol for hell. Though they speak in whispers their inner voices are loud and clear. The physical odyssey is also a journey of redemption. 

PROGRAMME 27.01 - 19:00
The eternal odyssey

BOZAR and the KVS are teaming up for a major double bill at the Centre for Fine Arts. The Iranian director Seyed Kamaleddin Hashemi will be presenting his On Which Wind Will You Ride?, the story of five refugees that evokes both the Greek hero Odysseus and Esfandyar, hero of the epic Persian poem Shahnameh. A week later KVS will be premiering Odysseus, een zwerver komt thuis [Odysseus, a wanderer comes home] with a brand new translation by Patrick Lateur for this rendition of Homer's Odyssey.

Classicist Patrick De Rynck will be discussing in Dutch the 'eternal odyssey' with David Rijser and Patrick Lateur. The theme of the (inner) journey, return and flight remains as pertinent today as ever. An example of the ‘always new antiquity’ about which Rijser has written a book. After the performance there will be a Q&A with director Seyed Kamaleddin Hashemi.

20:30: Performance (Studio)
22:00: Q&A with Seyed Kamaleddin Hashemi

PROGRAMME 28.01 - 20:30 (Studio)
Exceptionally there will be no introduction on January 28.

The speakers on January 27:

David Rijser (°1956) is a classicist. He teaches at the University of Amsterdam and regularly publishes articles on antiquity and cultural history, including in NRC Handelsblad. In 2012 he published a study on the link between pictorial art and literature in the Renaissance: Raphael’s Poetics: Art & Poetry in High Renaissance Rome. In March of this year his long awaited book on the response of the modern world to the works of antiquity was published with the title Een telkens nieuwe oudheid. Of: hoe Tiberius in New Jersey belandde (AUP) [An always new antiquity. Or: How Tiberius landed in New Jersey] that was warmly welcomed in the press.

Patrick Lateur (°1949) is a classicist and has published as a translator, poet and anthologist. A selection of his poetry appeared in the Parnassus series of the publisher P: In tegenstroom (2015) [Against the Current]. In 2016 Athenaeum published his translation of Homer's Odyssey, a companion volume to his translation of the Iliad that in 2013 won the Culture Prize for Literature from the Flemish Community.

Seyed Kamaleddin Hashemi (°1976) grew up in Chiraz, Iran. He is an author, actor, filmmaker and theatre director. In 1995 he joined the Mehr Theatre Group. In 2006 he wrote the play It’s a good day to die, about the Iran-Iraq war, but the play was censored. The earthquake in Bam inspired him to write Half-Open Doors. On Which Wind Will You Ride had its premiere in Fribourg in 2015.