Growing up with Macbeth - Youngsters in Rotterdam

In the youth theatre Hofplein in Rotterdam, 70 youngsters from various ethnic and cultural backgrounds play together in the opera Macbeth. Shakespeare wrote the history play in 1606, it was adapted into an opera by the composer Verdi more than two hundred years later, and it has now been adapted into a youth theatre production by Hofplein director Carla van Driel. It is a story in which violence, power, intrigue, ambition and revenge play major roles - obviously all familiar and appealing themes to these modern-day Rotterdam youngsters. The Iranian Roshanak, for example, experienced the abuse of power by fundamentalist clergymen from close up, before she and her family fled to the Netherlands. Ruben is afraid to go out since he got beaten up. Croat Ana also knows what ambition and violence can lead to. Nikita wears Lonsdale clothes, which are commonly associated with extreme right-wing views, but she gets along very well with the immigrant kids in the Hofplein group. And leading actor Jacques used to be teased because he has a congenital defect of the hands and feet, but by acting and singing he overcomes his inferiority complex. In everyday life, these adolescents have hardly anything in common; what binds them is their love of drama, music and dance. (International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam)