3 Days to Liberation II

Part of the programme
3 DAYS TO LIBERATION II
(Statement and program)
12–14 December 2025
Conceived & curated by Maryam Palizban
Presented by CONSTANZA MACRAS / DORKY PARK

A dialogue between Mila Mossafer and Neli,
initiated by Maryam Palizban
Neli spoken by Hannes Becker

Two women meet— from different times, generations, and memories. One bears the traces of the early revolution, the other the scars of the recent years: prison, loss, and survival after the unimaginable.

Mila Mossafer emerges from the history of the revolution; her words carry years of political persecution, exile, and hope. She responds to questions, reflects on her experiences, and shares insights into a long journey of resistance and care.

Neli, born after the revolution, moves between her homeland and exile. Her presence emerges through texts, voices, and moments of exchange—a mirror of the experience of rupture, movement, and the search for continuity. Her responses are being recited.

Between them, there is no interview, no protocol—only an attempt to share the unspeakable, without explaining it.

Between memory and survival, something emerges that is neither testimony nor comfort—only presence.

Perhaps that is enough.

Mila Mossafer was born in Iran and was confronted with injustice and oppression from a young age. At the age of 18, she began her fight against the dictatorship of the Pahlavi regime at Tabriz University and was actively involved in the 1979 Revolution. She briefly worked as a teacher at a girls‘ school. With the rise of the Islamic Republic and the beginning of a new phase of repression, she continued her fight for freedom and socialism. Faced with massive suppression, political persecution, executions, and the imprisonment of her friends, she eventually went underground and into exile. Even in exile, she did not stop dreaming—of a just world. Today, she is internationally active in supporting political prisoners and in women’s rights work, continuing her fight against gender and social inequality, racism, war, and militarism with hope.

Hannes Becker, born in 1982 in Frankfurt am Main, is an author, translator, and cultural scholar. He writes plays, radio dramas, prose, and poetry. He translates plays and poems from English, including works by Pamela Carter, Caryl Churchill, Jerry Lieblich, Matthew López, Charles Reznikoff, and Rosmarie Waldrop. Becker earned his doctorate with a dissertation on Prevention Fantasies in Contemporary Literature at the Zentrum für Literatur- und Kulturforschung (ZfL) Berlin and the Institute for Cultural Studies at Humboldt University in Berlin. Together with Marlene-Sophie Haagen, Hannes Becker is the host of the podcast ZEMENT GIESSEN.

Maryam Palizban is a theatre studies scholar, artis, curator and actor. Born in 1981 in Iran, she lives and works in Berlin. In 2014 she earned her doctorate from the Freie Universität Berlin / Centre for literary and cultural research (ZfL) with a thesis on The Performativity of Murder, a study on martyrdom and Shiite ritual theatre practice. She has gained prominence in Iran through films such as Deep Breath (Cannes 2003), Fat Shaker (Rotterdam 2013, Tiger Award), and Lantouri (Berlinale 2016; Iranian Film Academy Award). Her engagement with the Jina Revolution led her to pursue her projects abroad, which has since shaped her artistic and curatorial work. Palizban conceived and curated 3 Days to Liberation, developing formats in which artistic practice, memory, and knowledge can be experienced in tangible ways.

Event language: German