Twenty-five years after the fall of the Iron Curtain and a full decade after 9/11, the Arab Spring gave Europe cause to daydream once again of a universal, pluralistic democratic system.

In Syria, however, the freedom struggle was grounded in a complex and bloody civil war that also raged on subcutaneously in our own cities. The Civil Wars is the result of an intense research and creation process by Swiss theatre director and founder of the International Institute of Political Murder, Milo Rau, provocateur par excellence. Rau focuses on the Syrian conflict from the perspective of young Europeans who forsake everything to go fighting as jihadists.

The Civil Wars brings the recent history of the Arab world into the heart of Europe, where the Islamophobia of the extreme right and anti-Western Islamic fundamentalism come face to face. Starting from interviews with participants and observers of the fight, Milo Rau went on a quest for a different view on the conflict.

The Civil Wars is a merciless sketch of Europe under the spell of the Holy War.