Indifference is the fuel of autocracy. What role does literature have in creating a culture of care? During the European Literature Night we examine the political potential of literature.

‘Art can serve many purposes and take on many forms. But one of the key characteristics of a work of art is that it stimulates the mind and the heart’ – writes Alicja Gescinska in her essay Empathy against Indifference: On Totalitarianism and Art as a Moral and Political Force. During the European Literature Night we examine the political potential of literature. Can we improve ourselves in the act of caring through caring art?

Your ticket is valid for the entire day, so you’re warmly welcome to attend other programs as well. You can check the full timetable here. Please note: visitors with a ticket for a specific program will be given priority. Once a venue reaches full capacity, we unfortunately won’t be able to admit additional visitors.

About The European Literature Night
The European Literature Night is organized by De Balie and EUNIC Netherlands, the network of European national institutes of culture and national bodies engaged in cultural activities. This year the Goethe Institut, the British Council, the Institut français, Polish Culture NL, the Embassy of Ukraine, the Embassy of Greece, the Embassy of Estonia, and Vlaams Cultuurhuis De Brakke Grond contribute to the event.

Historian, journalist, and Pulitzer Prize winner Anne Applebaum dissects modern dictatorship. What threat do the growing autocracies pose?

When thinking of a dictator, one often imagines a malicious villain – someone we know from an action movie. Historian, journalist, and Pulitzer Prize winner Anne Applebaum challenges this image. In her latest book Autocracy, Inc., she describes how autocratic regimes are intertwined in intricate, international networks with the primary goal of self-enrichment. Autocrats are doing more business with each other than ever before, protecting each other and working together to destabilize the democratic order. What threat do these modern dictatorial networks pose?

About the collaboration
This Brainwash Special with Anne Applebaum is a collaboration between De Balie, TivoliVredenburg, and Brainwash Festival, and is part of the Forum on European Culture 2025 in Amsterdam.

About Anne Applebaum
Anne Applebaum (1964) is a historian and writer specializing in Eastern European and Soviet history. She has written several award-winning books, including Gulag: A History, which won the Pulitzer Prize, and her latest Autocracy, Inc. The Dictators Who Want to Run the World. Applebaum is also a staff writer at The Atlantic and a senior fellow at the Agora Institute at Johns Hopkins University. Her work provides critical insight into the rise of authoritarianism and the fragility of democracy.

Nino Haratischwili, renowned author of The Eighth Life (for Brilka) and director, invites you to take a seat at her supra at Forum on European Culture.

The Supra is a traditional Georgian feast table, playing a central role in social life. It is the place where meaningful conversations take place and therefore the perfect opening of the Forum on European Culture. Georgian food, wine, and polyphonic singing are essential elements of this tradition.

The supra has largely developed within a male, patriarchal tradition – although women have always been celebrated for their beauty and culinary skills. Haratischwili explores this tradition from a female perspective, together with you. Georgian musicians and actresses will join the table. They will eat, drink, sing, share stories of women. Take a seat and experience the supra with Nino Haratischwili.

The films of Serbian director Želimir Žilnik are as humanist as they are subversive. Stefan Malešević speaks with Želimir Žilnik about how cinema can present a form of resistance.
This program features an introduction by Bojan Fajfrić, and a special screening of Žilnik’s ground breaking short film Black Film (Crni Film, 1971, 17min).

Born in a concentration camp and raised in communist Yugoslavia, Želimir Žilnik remained dedicated to politically engaged cinema throughout his career. Žilnik was one of the pioneers of the Yugoslav Black Wave cinema; an influential underground film movement inspired by Italian neorealism and French New Wave. Žilnik’s films, characterized as ‘docu-fiction’, offer a deeply humane perspective on those at the margins of society, whether it be migrant workers in Berlin in the short film Iventur – Metzstrasse 11, (1975) or trans people in Belgrade in the taboo-breaking Yugoslav queer feature Marble Ass (1995).

Introduction to the conversation will be providedby filmmaker Bojan Fajfrić, who will reflect on how Žilnik inspired different generations of filmmakers, artists and activists on the Balkans and wider.

Film curator Stefan Malešević will engage in conversation with Žilnik about cinema as a form of resistance. How can cinema expose the mechanisms of control? What role does storytelling play in preserving historical memory and countering state propaganda? And in an era of rising authoritarianism, what can we learn from the artistic strategies of the past?

Your ticket is valid for the entire day, so you’re warmly welcome to attend other programs as well. You can check the full timetable here. Please note: visitors with a ticket for a specific program will be given priority. Once a venue reaches full capacity, we unfortunately won’t be able to admit additional visitors.

About Želimir Žilnik
Želimir Žilnik (1942) is a Serbian filmmaker and key figure of the Yugoslav Black Wave-movement. His award-winning work, including Early Works (Golden Bear Berlinale, 1969) and Kenedi Goes Back Home (2003), continues to influence new generations of filmmakers.

Bojan Fajfrić is a visual artist and filmmaker whose work investigates how personal memory intersects with collective history. Drawing from his experience growing up in Yugoslavia and living in the Netherlands, he focuses on overlooked events and marginal figures to explore how political time is embodied and remembered. His work has been exhibited and screened at Centre Pompidou and Palais de Tokyo (Paris), de Appel (Amsterdam), the Museum of Contemporary Art Belgrade, and the International Film Festival Rotterdam.

Pulitzer prize-winning author Anne Applebaum and Ukrainian philosopher Volodymyr Yermolenko engage in conversation about Ukraine’s past, present and future. With an introduction from Ukrainian writer Andrey Kurkov.

‘The bad guys are winning’, Anne Applebaum wrote in an essay in The Atlantic in 2021. If the twentieth century was about the rise of liberal democracy, the twentieth-first sofar has been about the opposite. The fight for democracy is nowhere as pressing as in Ukraine. Anne Applebaum and Ukrainian philosopher and writer Volodymyr Yermolenko discuss Ukraine’s ongoing struggle for freedom, and the stakes for the future – not just for Ukraine, but also for democracy in Europe. 

About the speakers
Anne Applebaum (1964) is a historian and writer specializing in Eastern European and Soviet history. She has written several award-winning books, including Gulag: A History, which won the Pulitzer Prize, and her latest Autocracy, Inc. The Dictators Who Want to Run the World. Applebaum is also a staff writer at The Atlantic and a senior fellow at the AGORA Institute at Johns Hopkins University. Her work provides critical insight into the rise of authoritarianism and the fragility of democracy. 

Volodymyr Yermolenko (1980) is a Ukrainian philosopher, writer, and journalist. He is the editor-in-chief of UkraineWorld, a multimedia platform, and author of several books on Ukrainian identity and European philosophy. He is the current president of PEN Ukraine and he has been a powerful voice for Ukraine during the ongoing war, offering a nuanced understanding of the cultural and historical context behind the conflict.

What does the future of Europe look like in an era of rising authoritarianism, renewed oligarchy, and democratic values under siege? During our Interview Marathon, the Forum on European Culture invites writers, artists and thinkers to reflect on the role of art in the fight against tyranny.

It may seem that art is powerless against weapons, yet history tells us otherwise. Autocrats and dictators fear artists and intellectuals — why else would they feel compelled to censor, imprison, and persecute them? It is the freedom of thought they seek to extinguish, the critical reflection they dread, and the plurality of voices they aim to silence. Art disrupts the singular narratives authoritarian leaders impose, making it a force of defiance.

 During this Interview Marathon, the Forum on European Culture gathers writers, artists, thinkers, and activists for conversations on resistance, identity, and the power of culture in confronting oppression. Can Europe uphold its democratic ideals in times of crisis? What role do artists and intellectuals play in the fight against tyranny?

During the interview marathon, guests take turns joining one after another for about an hour each. Visitors can walk in and out of the room and occasionally stretch their legs. The full marathon lasts from 5:00 PM to around 1:00 AM.

Your ticket is valid for the entire day, so you’re warmly welcome to attend other programs as well. You can check the full timetable here. Please note: visitors with a ticket for a specific program will be given priority. Once a venue reaches full capacity, we unfortunately won’t be able to admit additional visitors.

Programme

‘You can kill the messenger, but not the message’ is the slogan of news platform Forbidden Stories. We speak with founder Laurent Richard about the opportunities and challenges technology brings when working in the danger zone.

107 journalists were killed during their work last year. Very often because of their work. With his organisation Forbidden Stories, French journalist Laurent Richard completes the news stories of journalists who were murdered. Under the slogan ‘you can kill the messenger, but not the message’, Forbidden Stories published about forced labour in Turkmenistan, captagon trafficking in Syria and deforestation in Cambodia.

Before Forbidden Stories, Richard was involved with the Panama Papers, a project that published millions of documents that exposed offshore financial constructions.

Technology helps Richard in his investigative journalism, but comes with its own dangers. How do you communicate safely with your sources? How do you verify your facts online? And how do you work together with other organisations to finish a story? In this edition of Techdenkers we speak with Laurent Richard and other journalists about the opportunities and challenges technology brings when working in the danger zone.