Crime and Punishment

In 1866, Dostoyevsky wrote his first big novel. It talks about the former law student Raskolnikov who takes law into his own hands while drunk on superiority and kills two people. In addition to philosophical and religious discourses, the novel also explores the ruthless contradictions between social topics.

In 2020, Ene-Liis Semper and Tiit Ojasoo used the same novel to analyse the crime phenomenon in an individualistic context. It becomes a springboard for the artists to discuss questions like: where is the conscience of the globalised society? Who create the rules and laws in a world where different religions, cultures and political systems clash? Does morality still exist in this day and age? And what kind of a role does individual power actually play in current legislation?

“A crime? What kind of a crime? Do you mean that I killed a detestable, harmful louse, a loan shark’s old hag who no one needs and whose murder will redeem forty sins, who was sucking life juice out of poor people? And this is supposed to be a crime?”

This kind of bragging bravura is shown by one of the most famous characters of world literature, the penniless student Raskolnikov but these words which were written more than 150 years ago sound like they were written today and for us.