In “How did we deserve this?” (Friday, June 5, 8:15 p.m., ORF1) Caroline Peters plays a mother whose teenage daughter suddenly wears a headscarf. In the interview, Peters tells “Today” how she feels about Islam, but also why she is an Instagram fan and why you will never see her in porn or in the jungle camp.
How did we deserve this?
The successful surgeon Wanda (Caroline Peters, herself a feniminist and atheist, is unable to cope when her daughter Nina suddenly appears with a headscarf during family therapy. The teenager has converted to Islam online, her divorced parents (Peters and Simon Schwarz) want her new one After all, at least Wanda wants to know what her child is getting into. At the latest when she shows up in the mosque, the cultures crash …
Today: You rediscovered Instagram in the Corona era. What fascinates you about the medium?
Caroline Peters:I found this live function so great. I was absolutely thrilled. That you can communicate live with so many people and that you have a small stage that you can design yourself.
Today: Did you have problems with negative feedback?
Caroline Peters:Not yet, but I always count on it. I don’t think you can avoid that. Palina Rojinski has with Joko and Klaas issued the penis pictures that she gets sent. Thank God that hasn’t happened to me yet. I thought it was a great contribution that you can get information back there. You inform me about your genitals and I inform the whole television world out there that you do that.
Today: Did they get their film “How did we deserve this?” also feedback from Muslims?
Caroline Peters: Eva Spreitzhofer (director, note) and I were very involved in film screenings, for example with school classes. The feedback was very positive. The Muslim fellow citizens we spoke to were all totally happy to be shown how they feel. Namely as Muslim fellow citizens and not as potential suicide bombers, potential women haters, potential ISIS members and synagogues-in-the-air blasters or warriors.
The film says to the daughter, “Couldn’t you have become Catholic? That would have been bad enough for me.” The question of strong religiosity is the central point for me. Not what kind of belief the daughter joins, but THAT she so firmly joins a belief. There are religious approaches that are difficult to negotiate for a democratic, open society.
Today: The film is already two years old. Is it just as current today?
Caroline Peters:The film was released in November 2018. Not much had changed since then until Corona. At the moment, all of these topics are – how do we keep it with the headscarf? How do we deal with the question of religion? suppressed because we have to answer this other question – who believes in Corona and who doesn’t? The relationship to religion changes in the generation after us. I didn’t grow up in a religious environment. “I’m going to confirmation or communion for the gifts” and everyone thought it was OK to say that. There were no parents who said “What, how can you say that, you have to really believe in it. That was not asked of us. It is very strange afterwards. Back then it was normal and today something new is normal, namely, that children and adolescents long for a strong religious connection again, while they have parents who have nothing to contribute because they think “Huh? How so?”
Today: Do you think Corona will affect society as a whole?
Caroline Peters:Sure, we just don’t know which one yet. Now everyone is demonstrating about climate change and that would be an opportunity. We no longer hop ten times a year for the weekend at another Christmas market in another city, where we ourselves have one in the city. We don’t have to fly to Nuremberg from Vienna to eat Nuremberg sausages. That is not necessary. Total freedom is not just total consumption.
Today: what would be your personal ramifications?
Caroline Peters:You have to change things now, I see it that way. There was a time when a lot of actors flew back and forth and played there and there, you just have to reduce that. This does not have to take place in this number of strokes. Visits to the family in Germany don’t always have to be made by plane. This has an impact on my comfort and my comfort and on my professional opportunities. There will be ramifications, but maybe some very positive ones.
Today: Did you learn anything new when preparing for the film?
Caroline Peters:In any case. I hadn’t dealt with Islam so intensely. Just as I know a lot about everyday Christian life, for example. About Mass or Devotion or Host and the rites and rituals associated with the Catholic or Evangelical Church. I knew something vaguely from Islam that there was Ramadan, but that’s about it. And what exactly that looks like, I didn’t have ready. These were all things that I learned. The most interesting thing for me was that these seem to be all questions of interpretation. One Muslim understands the word of the prophet that way and the other understands it that way. You can shape the faith yourself. Some wear headscarves, others don’t.
Today: Do you think it’s hard to get this topic across in a funny way?
Caroline Peters:I actually think we managed to get the subject across in a funny way. I actually only talked to people who really had to laugh heartily. For example, in the film screenings that I attended, I observed this (e.g. Zurich, Berlin, Vienna). Especially in the end when Simon Schwarz and I in Nikab try to find our daughter. And then don’t get along with the robe at all. Because this strong symbol also has a practical component: you have to get along with so much material on your body.
Today: in 2020, you are the cohort of the century for the anniversary of the Salzburg Festival. Have you already had rehearsals?
Caroline Peters:Even in the non-corona world, they would not have started until the end of June. We are still quite on schedule.
Today: You would never do porn, reality TV or daily soaps. What would be worst for you?
Caroline Peters:Porn.
Today: More of a jungle camp than a sex film?
Caroline Peters: That would also be an insane disaster for me. Terrible idea. I found the school country home (school country week, note) horrible. And now even among adults who want to snatch money from each other. It is a nightmare. A nightmare. It doesn’t have to be. I also don’t think that’s the only way to entertain people. There’s another way. It used to be different, there was no such thing anyway. I close my eyes to this kind of parallel world, just like others close it to culture.
Today: good luck with the Buhlschaft, I’m really excited!
Caroline Peters:Me too!
