Life and Fate

“I have realized that it is not man who is powerless against evil, but that powerful evil is powerless against man.”

1942. While Europe is in flames, Russian nuclear physicist Strum's groundbreaking invention drives him into a moral dilemma: How far can science go when it leads to destruction? And what remains of one's conscience when recognition and survival are conditional? At the same time, Russian soldiers in Stalingrad withstand the siege by deviating from the party line, a prisoner in a German concentration camp writes about kindness, and Krymov realizes that the state sometimes turns against even those loyal to the system.

Like a kaleidoscope, Life and Fate - considered the War and Peace of the 20th century - tells the story of a whole network of lives amid the horrors of war: at the front, in the camps, in living rooms and basements. The Russian-Jewish writer Vasily Grossman explores what distinguishes life and searches for humanity. Dmitri Shostakovich's 10th Symphony from 1953, which the Bochum Symphony Orchestra will perform at the Anneliese Brost Musikforum Ruhr following the first four performances, also bears witness to this search and the tensions between artist and state.