Moses

In their version of the story, Feridun Zaimoglu and Günter Senkel put their focus on the archaic essence of Moses as a character, who is revered as a prophet by three religions. They “do not revise the Bible, they accentuate it, and at the same time they make it more human. Where the Old Testament abashedly hints and hedges its words, they expose, add some juicy meat of legends to the bones, and leave no doubt what every second of it is about.” (Süddeutsche Zeitung) Their Moses turns into “a fascinatingly current representation of religious fanaticism and parallel worlds.” (Nachtkritik) In the beginning, he is primarily an uprooted pretender to the throne, one of humble origins, whom the Israelites no longer regard as one of their own. Only after decades in exile does he return as God’s messenger, and he becomes the leader of the faithful. But his relentless religious war claims so many victims that even Moses himself, in a rare moment of doubt, cries out: “God, you are voracious. You command us not to take lives. But I kill and kill and kill – in Your name.”