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 burnin 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 carol sort of branded 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 verdi'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 teeming with six intrigue and despots oh. the slave chorus laments their lost home but in this update the original hebrew slaves have been replaced by actual refugees from syria and afghanistan.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 kyocera brenna cove is not able to take the final curtain he's under house arrest in moscow and can only send a video message. down a. great opening thank you so much for this extraordinary moment in my. live. carol sir brenda coffee 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. and for me it felt like we had a real director here i have often worked with directors who seemed much more absent even though they were physically present. in rehearsal recordings for the director

each scene from every phase of rehearsals was filmed and sent via a u.s.b. stick to moscow it was up to system director of guinea could logon to communicate serve bread and cuffs return video instructions to the team and. then point. out that everyone has their own opinion of the message. they see different meanings questions and answers 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. 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 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 of seeing this must be the biggest you've ever seen a part of your painting yeah yeah quite good resolution yeah 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 initially studied architecture 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. this is 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. the often pains portraits of heroes and leader he pays tribute to the pathos and decadence of past iris through his intensive use of color. how has developed a technique. towards 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

a new idea 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 of also appeared in national and international exhibitions such as the berlin meet collectors who. has no intention of letting circumstance. it's like these put him under any pressure. so no pressure but what you've actually achieved what thousands of artists dream 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 always 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 know influenced by the barack and the renaissance 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 i've always wanted 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 times it's the way that i make studies i make sketches and i try to create. my vision first on paper and then it goes steps instead 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 that i was trying to search for. like some decadent images from from nowadays and not from the barcode 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 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 modeled like the sail around it all of the sayings they are wearing the poles and. they have it all fits so. i think like a painting

a face there would lead to different direction a ha 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 greater significance but that's you don't want to take away. from the no no no no no it's more like the sallow face you know it's the. you know not the personality so. ok now you take approximately a month on a kid said in the report that i always want to do is it easy to put the paintbrush do you know. that's done and you go to bed and you don't get up in the morning and go. that might be just like you yeah it'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 euros now. all success to you thank you very much for being with a surcharge for 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. guys 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 head is the german word for bright her neighbors neighbor's dog meaning dark when they don't who goes missing and heather decides to do something about it i'm going to break into the dog goes flat after years of hard training with way opening the walk should be no problem calling the police exam question it's not as if i were

a legal way doesn't just teach students punches and kicks but also the thirty six chinese survival strategy its weight has taught me how to weight calling it a feeling for the right moment tells 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. the shadow boxing woman brings together past and present as well as two berlins 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 www dot com slash culture and indeed lots about the project and

about the books and more about lit up they're all on the website as well that's all we've got time full on this edition of in culture. thanks all the crew for keeping this altogether full may join us at the site in tons of our if you. think.

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this is deja vu news live from berlin it's this practice a deal or brags that may not happen at all those are the words of the use john called younger appearing alongside theresa may at a late night press conference he's warned there will be no third chance for the new terms enough to win the support of the british parliament in a vote later today also coming up.