Hospital of the Spirits

"Perhaps they became too presumptuous in their stubborn denial of the spiritual world? Because in the building that is so modern and seemingly so solid, fatigue cracks are becoming visible. The gates to the realm of death are beginning to open again."


This is what it says in the opening credits of the series that the young Lars von Trier created for Danish television after completing his studies. It is about a dilapidated hospital building, esoteric treatment methods, the cover-up of medical malpractice, a hospital administration geared towards austerity, a surprise visit from the Minister of Health and other unpleasant things. In addition, ghosts haunt the building and monsters are born.


Evil fights with good: a lot happens in the eight episodes that were filmed in the 90s. With black humor, the events in the "Reich" raise fundamental questions that, in all their absurd bizarreness, aim at the heart of the health care system:

• What is the state of hospitals?
  
• What is the state of efficiency and ethical-moral questions in relation to medical action?
  
• But also: How much is the past part of the present? How much is evil a condition for good?
  
• And above all: How permeable is the boundary between life and death?
  

Lars von Trier, a great European filmmaker and enfant terrible of the film industry, is a cult director whose films are as provocative in content as they are aesthetically innovative. Many of his works have been adapted for the theater, and the "Hospital of Ghosts" is now finding its way onto the stage - near the Charité, which is also built on shaky ground - as a character-rich spectacle that is also an inclusive theater project with actors from RambaZamba and from Graz.



(PLAY IN GERMAN)