Die Stadt Ohne Juden (1924)

Peer Gynt-salen, Grieghallen
Sunday 21st of November 2021
Concert starts: 7pm
Doors open: 6pm

The silent film DIE STADT OHNE JUDEN (“The City Without Jews”) is regarded as one of the most important Austrian productions of the interwar period. Based on the novel by the Jewish writer Hugo Bettauer, the film was shot in Vienna in 1924.

Sadly prophetic, it shows the impoverishment of a city following the expulsion of its Jewish population. The film was thought to be lost, but Filmarchiv Austria managed to restore it after finding fragments all over the world.

The concert is a cooperation with Bergen International Film Festival.

Music by Olga Neuwirther.
There will be a short introduction before the film in Norwegian and in English.

18:00 Doors open
19:00 Concert starts (88min.)

There will be some short introductions before the film in Norwegian and English.

Per Kristian Sebak
Per Kristian Sebak is a historian and department director for the Bergen Maritime Museum in Museum Vest. Sebak has written the book "We will hardly ever be many here - Jews in Bergen 1851-1945" (2008) and is a skilled historian. He will tell a little about the historical context from a Bergen perspective.

Dániel Péter Biró & Karen Werner
Dániel Péter Biró is a professor of composition at the Grieg Academy and is deputy head of the newly established Jewish community here in Bergen. Together with sound artist Karen Werner, they will talk about the context for both the silent film and Olga Neuwirth's innovative and thought-provoking music. As an artist, Werner himself has dealt with issues related to music, sound and the Holocaust, including in the installation series "Haus" — made in collaboration with Tonspur Kunstverein Wien. Biró leads the research project "Sounding philosophy" and his dissertation was a comparative study of early notation practice in the Torah.

Olga Neuwirth is an Austrian classical composer. She sprang to international prominence in 1991, at the age of 22.