On 3 January 1889, on coming across a horse being whipped by a coachman at the Piazza Carlo Alberto, in Turin, Nietzsche reportedly threw his arms around the horse’s neck to defend it, and collapsed. Had this philosopher who signed the following day several of his letters with “The Crucified,” and who was discerning enough not to view himself as the owner of “his” body come across Twelver Shi‘ite participants in the yearly ten-day commemorative event ‘Âshűrâ’, would he have intervened likewise between them and “their” bodies as they whipped and slapped the latter, exclaiming all the while, in the words with which Saint Francis addressed and referred to “his” body: “Brother donkey!”?
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Premiere:
Né à Beyrouth film and video festival, Beirut, August 29, 2007. |
