The West Ain't What It Used To Be

The West Ain't What It Used to Be

Thanksgiving with country music, Jell-o salad and Dolly Parton

A lot of folks are worried about the state of democracy in the United States. Is it teetering on the brink? Is a civil war looming? Are the tech billionaires supporting its downfall?

Thanksgiving in Berlin. Fred and his US-American wife Rhonda have invited guests from her motherland over for a turkey dinner. Inevitably, the conversation drifts from the American Dream, via Karl May and Western movies, to the topic of all topics: What is going on in the US? Strangely enough, Dolly Parton seems to be in the room, too. And a country & western band magically appears. The evening escalates...

In the fourth installment of its „Conversations with Cultural Icons“ series, coproducing with ETB/IPAC The Waltraud Experience tackles one of the most pressing issues of our time: Where are the United States headed? The right and the left stand in completely irreconcilable opposition; a stalemate has been reached.

Country music icon Dolly Parton - who sadly passed away on August 25th - was often looked to as a unifying figure; someone both the right and the left can agree on. Yet, a closer look reveals that Dolly prefered to stay out of it ... she sang, she cracked jokes, and she championed „positive thinking“... but politics? No thanks.