Lionhearts

Nine-year-old Anand wears a top hat, streamers and gold paper fall from the ceiling, and the lion jumps into a burning tire at his command – but in reality, the little magician is working all day long – sewing plush toys in a factory in Bangladesh. To make his dream of becoming a circus magician come true, Anand needs a plan. Thus begins his toy lion on a journey around the world. In the end, the lion will bring happiness to all children, because children are strong and lions.

“The lions deal with big, global issues in an interesting and courageous way, critically confront social problems and provide an impetus for creating perspectives for the future. Each scene in the book contains a chance for change, each of its characters has a strong, optimistic will to develop.” Jury of the Mülheim Children’s Play Competition.

German-speaking Georgian playwright, director and writer. In 1995–97, he studied in Germany, then returned to Tbilisi and, after graduating from the VI Gymnasium, entered the Department of Film Documentary Studies of the Shota Rustaveli Theater and Film University. Until 2003, he studied in Gia Chubabria's group. In the same year, he entered the Hamburg Theater Academy, Department of Drama Directing. In 2005, with the short film "Doves", he defended his diploma in Tbilisi, and in 2007, with his own version of "Medea", he graduated from the Hamburg Theater Academy. In 2006, he was on an exchange program at the Department of Theater Directing of the Russian University of Theater Arts (Moscow, GITIS). In 2008, after returning to Hamburg, she fought hard to have her own play staged. In the end, her play, called "Z", was so successful that she was invited to several festivals. She also received theater awards: the Rolf-Mares Prize for the production of "Agony" at the Hamburg "Lichthof" Theater and the main prize of the Heidelberg Theater Festival for the play "Liv Stein". It was then that she attracted the attention of the publishing house "Verlag der Autoren". In 2010, Nino Kharatishvili became the laureate of the Albert Chamisot Prize, which is awarded to writers by the Bavarian Academy of Arts and the Robert Bosch Foundation. Currently, Nino Kharatishvili lives in Hamburg (Germany) and works in various theaters in Germany, Switzerland and Austria. His plays are successfully staged in Vienna, Moscow, Wiesbaden, Berlin, Hamburg, Tbilisi, Bruchsal, Göttingen, Saarbrücken.