Gebrechen   3. November 2007, 23 Uhr

I have a dream. Martin Luther King repeated these famous words again and again in his speech back in 1963. I have a dream.

I also have a dream - as a citizen from the western world I have a dream, as a European I have a dream. My dream is that we from the west, we Europeans, we stop pretending to live in Neverland.

Neverland is a fairy tale world best known from Peter Pan and Wendy. Neverland is a world with no rules and no adults. In Neverland no one ever grows up. Children remain children forever. By the way - singer Michael Jackson's ranch in California is named Neverland.

I have a dream that our society will stop pretending that we live in Neverland. Neverland, this a world where we people are measured by our appearance, our youth and our energy. Youth, beauty and energy become the keys to success - the keys to fulfilling our lives. Moviemakers, TV producers, and society seem to close their eyes and pretend that we live in Neverland. They present us with a fairy tale world where people never grow-up - never take on responsibilities, never get wrinkles, never loose their hair, never turn gray, never grow old. In our part of the world we seem to prefer Neverland - this land of eternal childhood and immortality. This world we pretend never to die, but fight to stay young forever.

But Neverland is an escape - an escape from the realities of life. Neverland with its eternal youth is an illusion. I have a dream that we recognize and acknowledge that Neverland is an illusion.

Whenever we are in church - like tonight in this gothic St. Petri Kirche dating back to the 13th century - then we are reminded that there were people here before us - and other people will come after us, because one day we will not be here.

But at the movies at the Film festival here in Lübeck we seem to forget that we grow old. Most of the movies - just like in Hollywood movies - prefer beautiful young women, handsome young men and a few middle-aged men. There are very seldom old people in the movies. And when there are old persons, then they are clichés and stereotypes.

The Film festival in Lübeck 2007 is no exception. We do not see portraits of ordinary relationships between children and older adults or between older adults. Not in Hollywood films, not at the film festival in Lübeck. The films take place in Neverland.

Vision

I have a dream that we in the western society say no thank you to the Neverland clichés. I have a dream that we shout STOP. We do not live in Neverland, so let us bury Neverland deep under the earth.

I have a dream that we dare come to terms with aging. I have a dream that we see aging as sometimes charming, sometimes painful, sometimes ugly - just as childhood, teenage life and youth sometimes is charming, sometimes painful, sometimes ugly. I have a dream that next year when we see movies at the film festival then we will see elderly - not only elderly as sentimental or helpless people that are a burden for society. No elders that are also shown with respect for their experience, their skills and their wisdom - respect for their fears, their dreams and their hopes.

This is my dream.

(Birgit O'Sullivan)