
The man without a past
by Aki Kaurismäki
A man gets badly beaten up and injured. He loses everything: his memory, his identity, and his previous life. Finding himself completely alone in what is, for him, a foreign city and excluded from ordinary society, the nameless man begins a quest for survival. Along the way, he’s helped by some other social outcasts. In 'The Man Without A Past', Aki Kaurismäki – perhaps the most melancholy of Europe’s major filmmakers – tells a wonderfully tender tale of friendship, love, egoism, structural violence, hope, and the fear of failure and poverty. The result is often sad, frequently funny and completely devoid of false sentiment. And, almost incidentally, Kaurismäki creates a counterbalance to the weight of the history (or histories) which define an individual – simply through his presence and the power of his actions.
Director Dimiter Gotscheff
Set Katrin Brack
Costumes Ellen Hofmann
Composition and Rehearsal Alexander Dafov / Simon Jakob Drees
Dramaturgy Claus Caesar
Premiere December 17, 2010
Harald Baumgartner

Margit Bendokat

Andreas Döhler

Samuel Finzi

Wolfram Koch

Michael Schweighöfer

Almut Zilcher

Simon Jakob DreesViola, Guitar, Vocals, Harmonica
Tobias MorgensternAccordion, Vocals
Scott WhiteContrabass, Viola, Vocals, Percussion
XellOboe, English horn, Xaphoon, Chime, Vocals, Electric guitar
Simon Jakob Drees
Viola, Guitar, Vocals, Harmonica
Tobias Morgenstern
Accordion, Vocals
Scott White
Contrabass, Viola, Vocals, Percussion
Xell
Oboe, English horn, Xaphoon, Chime, Vocals, Electric guitar