Head and shoulders // 14+ - with follow-up discussion

In Swiss German with German surtitles.

"We will raise our voices for the many and fight with unforgettable speeches and raised fists. We will try out slogans, struggle for words and speak with looks. And we will risk talking our heads off. I promise!"

Director Hannah Biedermann worked her way through current and historical speeches with five young actors to see what it does to them when they use other people's words. Are they too big - like a costume that you put on to take on a different role on stage for a moment? Or do they fit at some point? Does speaking them reduce the feeling of powerlessness?

We encounter statements by Hannah Arendt and interview excerpts from Ulrike Meinhof about the necessity of expressing one's opinion against the resistance. As a leading suffragette, Emmeline Pankhurst reported on her successful fight for women's suffrage in Great Britain in 1913. Angela Davis' speech at the Embassy Auditorium in Los Angeles in 1972 recounts the successful fight for her release and calls for solidarity for Black people. Malala Yousafzais addressed the UN Youth General Assembly as a 16-year-old in 2013. She had previously been shot by a Taliban in Pakistan because she had campaigned for the right to education for all. With lines from Schiller's Maid of Orleans, the militant spirit of Joan of Arc is coupled with the energy of Pussy Riot's punk prayers.