The trio of Yuriy Gurzhy, Marina Frenk, and Daniel Kahn—also known as The Disorientalists—traces the winding life story of Essad Bey, whose biography reflects the contradictions and upheavals of an entire century. Born in Kyiv in 1905 as the son of an oil industrialist and a Bolshevik, Lev Nussimbaum fled with his father from Baku via Istanbul to Berlin in 1920 to escape the aftermath of the October Revolution. In 1922, he converted to Islam and from then on called himself Essad Bey. Under this name, as well as under the pseudonym Kurban Said, he wrote numerous works, including the famous novel *Ali and Nino*, the love story of a Christian woman and a Muslim man in Azerbaijan.

In addition to novels, he also wrote biographies of Muhammad and Stalin, as well as a book on Mussolini that he began but never finished. Although he was banned from publishing as a Jew, he sympathized with the Nazis, fled to Italy, and died in Positano in 1942 at the age of only 37. He left behind an extensive body of work—and many mysteries. “The Disorientalists” explore these mysteries in their revue.

In collaboration with the Jewish Museum Vienna and with the kind support of the KlezMore Vienna