Origin

In his novel Herkunft eindrÃ, Saša StanišiÄ describes in detail what involuntary relocation to a foreign country entails and the barriers that arise. As a war refugee from the former Yugoslavia, he came to Heidelberg as a teenager. In his novel, StanišiÄ shares his memories of childhood, family, flight and new beginnings. in 2019, he received the German Book Prize for his work.

Jasmina HadžiahmetoviÄ, co-director of music theater at the Tiroler Landestheater and Bosnian by birth, is staging the adaptation of the novel. Her own biography bears striking similarities to Stanišič's. Both had to leave their homeland in 1992 and fled to Germany. Both were 14 years old at the time, their birthdays are only two months apart, and both have built up a successful existence in their new homeland.