Stopover

Pavel Molek

Stopover

Directed by Michal Moravec

On its journey from Calcutta to Rome, a Scandinavian Airlines flight makes a scheduled stopover in Tel Aviv. Among the passengers is the former President of the Reichsbank, Hjalmar Schacht – once nicknamed “Hitler’s banker”. It is 1951. And Schacht would rather be anywhere else in the world than in Israel.

What begins as a one-hour wait in an airport café turns into a gripping drama about Schacht’s life. He is recognised not only by David, a waiter who spent years in concentration camps as a Jew, but also by Friederike Brecher, a Jewish woman from Prostějov. Both want to hand Schacht over to the Israeli authorities. Schacht defends himself by claiming that he sought to moderate Hitler’s policies and that he held no official position after 1939.

Stopover is a compelling play about guilt, forgiveness, justice – and about how we confront our own traumas. Every word may determine whether Friederike and David allow Schacht to board his flight or send him to a Tel Aviv cell. How will they decide?

Pavel Molek, known primarily as an author of radio dramas, has in recent years established himself as a notable playwright. His play Monument for Hradiště, set in the aftermath of the Munich Agreement, was nominated for the Mark Ravenhill Award. Pavel Molek is a judge of the Supreme Administrative Court, a respected lecturer at the Faculty of Law of Masaryk University, and the author of a number of acclaimed scholarly monographs.

In cooperation with the Brno City Museum and Arnold’s Villa.

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