State of Siege – A Palestinian-Finnish larp project

State of Siege – A Palestinian-Finnish larp project

State of Siege is a larp about occupied Finland that will be held 15th – 17th November in Helsinki organized by Palestinian and Finnish larp designers.

Last August the larp Till Death Do us Part was organized as a cooperation between Norwegian and Palestian larp designers. It was the first bigger Palestian larp project and since then many projects has has happened in and in connection to the emerging Palestinian larp community.

The latest addition is a Palestian-Finnish cooperation with the larp Sate of Siege (or Piiritystila – Halht Hisar) to be held in November.

State of Siege is a larp about occupied Finland and everyday life under a military regime. The game is set at the University of Helsinki where students and researches are trying to hold a seminar in the midst of checkpoints, random searches, curfew and other facets of life under occupation.

The game is created cooperatively between Finnish and Palestinian designers. It’s held in November 2013, on 15th – 17th, and is open to both Finnish and foreign participants. The languages will mostly be Finnish and English.
From the website

We asked two of the designers from the crew about their thoughts about the project.

Larp designer Juhana Pettersson

Larp designer Juhana Pettersson

Juhana Pettersson: “The original idea for Halat hisar came from a quote I used in an article I wrote about the Palestinian larp Till Death Do Us Part. Fatima AbdulKarim, one of the Palestinian organizers, said that she’d love to do larp in Finland. The idea caught on after the article was published. Fatima’s original idea of using larp to communicate the reality of life under occupation was just the kind of thing larp is really good for.”

Fatima AbdulKarim: “Its a great experience to be working on Halat Hissar and it’s characters, it’s like wearing your clothes inside-out and and changing perspectives like changing to matching sunglasses!”

Read more at the official web site: Piiritystila


Cover image: Piiritystila – State of Siege – Halht Hisar. Photo by Joel Sammallahti, 2013

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Authors

A Swedish larper, larp designer and producer. He is one of the owners of pedagogic larp production company LajvVerkstaden and he also produces the Nordic Larp Talks.