based painter lennart col whose colorful mysterious images are inspired by renaissance masterpieces. and in this week's edition of one hundred german must reads we look at a mystery set in the heady days following the full of the burning war. we begin in hamburg where the opening night of the verde opera in a book oh began with its director two thousand kilometers away under house arrest in moscow could all sort of brand of coffee is a harsh critic of the government so unable to travel he's relied on friends to carry out his vision for the production and his updated take on bertie's classic puts the plight of refugees in europe into the mix. a modern rendition a very nice classic nabucco set in the u.n. security council teaming with six intrigue and spots.

the slave chorus laments their lost home but in this update the original hebrew slaves have been replaced by actual refugees from syria and afghanistan. director kiro serb brennan is not able to take the final curtain he's under house arrest in moscow and can only send a video message. great opening thank you so much these extraordinary moment in my. live. carols are bred a culture is considered a punk among russian directors he's received international accolades but the outspoken kremlin critic was arrested in august of two thousand and seventeen charged with embezzling public funds he now has to work remotely from his moscow apartment. does that assistant director of guinea could logon to communicate serve

brannock of return video instructions to the team in hamburg. with this everyone has their own opinion of the message. they see different meanings questions and answers this could there is certainly no clear message. but it certainly shines a light at outcast from our modern society putting actual refugees center stage and letting them voice an operatic call for freedom. i'm joined now by a fellow artist i should say but a painter they're not crawl just before we talk about your paintings which we can see in glorious technicolor one of them behind you if you are in a similar situation to sarah brown a cough that. and somebody said you can't do those paintings anymore what would you do well i don't know i hope i don't get into this situation. let's just hope for it and i just i just wonder what you think seeing this must be the

biggest you've ever seen a part of your pain yeah yeah quite good resolution yeah this is a very you sort of don't see oh no no no it's like a closer look i like that. ok. but. let's find out more about. lives and works in berlin where he ended. up then he decided to dedicate himself to his true and studied art he finished the college of fine arts as a master student and stayed on in the german capital. he has his studio in the north of. here says where he creates his colorful pictures generally painting with acrylics. for his paintings he takes inspiration from the old masters.

the fact that my subjects are often so similar probably has to do with this whole universe of iraq and rococo and my fascination with it i like to let myself be seduced by and. often paints portraits of heroes and leaders he pays tribute to the pathos of past iris through his intensive use of color. how has developed a technique. as the paints right down to the canvas to create thick layers that merge into one another. it takes him an average of one month to complete a painting unless he's fighting a deadline he'll take the time to work out. and he's grateful he's able to live from his. diaries for the artist's works

come from all over the world some are prominent art lovers his works have also appeared in national and international exhibitions such as the berlin me collectors who. has no intention of letting circumstance. it's like these put him under any pressure. so no pressure but you've actually achieved what thousands of volunteers stream about of making a living from your odds. so have you achieved your wildest dreams i mean what's what's what's the best of that. well i don't know what could be better for me i'm i'm very happy about this and very thankful. that it worked out so far. i mean it wasn't always like that i also had hard time soon the studies we had to do stupid jobs. just to make a living and. yeah luckily those times have changed now you're influenced

by the barack and the rent as souls as we heard and you talked about why but it's not always the case not all of your paintings. inspired by them i mean that's quite clear did i want to always want to go off do you have a eureka moment do you sometimes see something in your mind's eye the completed work or is it always a process. no it's most of the kinds of the way that i make studies i make sketches and i try to create. my vision first on paper and then it goes steps and steps through and slowly it develops we have here you see this one that looks to me like you had it well then is that a football is that a football motif no i don't think it's from football. well more like random people yeah yeah yeah but f'rinstance how did that one come

a bath you know it was more like that i was trying to search for. like some decadent images from from nowadays and not from the hardcore coco it was like a translation into i want times maybe. ok now one thing i've noticed in a lot of your paintings a blank faces i notice this happens quite a lot in your work out now why is that in most of the time as we can see here maybe it's not so much about the personality of the character it's more like the sail around it all of the sayings they are wearing the poles and. they have that office so. i think like a painting a face there would lead them to different direction. but i mean it's always a very noticeable to me when i look at it oh there's no faces and trying to

find a great significance but that's you don't want to take away. from the no no no no it's more like the sallow face you know is the. you know not the personality so. ok now you take approximately a month on a work it said in the report that i always want to draw is it easy to put the pay rush do you know. that's done and you go to bed and you don't get up in the morning and go. that's what is right for you yeah that's tricky because sometimes you know you have pain things that way you can feel something is missing and you don't know what it is so you maybe put it away for weeks or months then i just turn it around again and look at it as if it would be a painting from a from another artist maybe and then i have a fresh view and sometimes it's just need one stroke and family and everything you

need it. thank you very much for being with us i should say to you that before this weekend i didn't know if your work i'm absolutely blown away by i think you're wonderful. and you can give me the fifty euro's not. all success to you thank you very much for being with us or actually having me here. turning to literature now in our series one hundred must reads today's novel is set here in berlin around the time the berlin wall came down thirty years ago in fact the city itself is kind of the main protagonist my colleague david levitz will explain more about parise the shadow boxing woman. have you ever been a victim or felt like one what if you could fight back what if you could take out anyone you wanted to what do you.

think. is novel the shadow boxing woman is about a young woman living in berlin when the wall comes down after she survives a rape her whole world changes she finds a martial arts teacher who transforms her into a fighting machine. the woman's name is hell now because she's a total bad ass because heather is the german word for bright her neighbors neighbor's dog meaning dark when they don't know who goes missing and heather decides to do something about it i'm going to break into dog because flat after years of hard training with the way opening the walk should be no problem calling the police is out of the question it's not as if i were really cold why doesn't just teach students punches and kicks but also the thirty six chinese survival strategy one has taught me how to wait calling it

a feeling for the right moment his mission to find her neighbor takes her down a twisted path to the stranger who attacked her now if it sounds like a crime story don't expect a classic whodunit in. the shadow boxing woman brings together past and present as well as to berlin's east and west that are just getting to know each other again but mostly it's about confronting fear and shadows even our own. and this unique list of one hundred german books you should read. it is available on our website at d.w. dot com slash culture and indeed lots about the project and about the books and more about her all on the website as well that's all we've got time full on this

edition of in culture. thanks soul the crew for keeping this all together film and join us at the same time as a bar if you fall by for. the fine for top spot good to be true trying to treat points not enough.

science is the meat on goal difference after smashing books full of six new defending champions now. thirty minutes. a mystery of the stone a. giant artworks that still captivate today. thousands of years ago. but why. what do they reveal about the people who made that. city. five minutes on.

the floods have taken everything they own now despair is please god left the climate refugees flooding. they seek shelter in the capital to come but even here the waters are rising. the floods are coming. stars. g.w. . he takes it personally. with wonderful people and stories that make the game so special. for all true fans. to come more than football online. what's the connection between bread. and the european you. know killed my test. correspondent and avid baker crap. turn to

stone and let's go about recipes for success and strategies that make a difference. baking bread. on g.w. . british prime minister to resign may says she has secured legally binding changes to the plan breck's a deal with the e.u. she called on british lawmakers to approve the deal when they vote on it on tuesday european commission president john claude younker said monday's agreement was the best possible and there would be no new negotiations.