to teach the shortest villagers to join. the renaissance factor in forty five minutes d w. sex make. raring to free. if there is any to your product it's remember you have to find it between the lights. literature hundred german plus treats. welcome to arts twenty one. almost three decades have passed since the collapse of the soviet union arts twenty one is on a journey to explore the literary world of post soviet republics were traveling to three capitals prague bucharest and tbilisi what they have in common is their

socialist history where they differ is in their development since one thousand nine hundred ninety. a majestic console narrow alleyways and numerous domes and towers and impressive bridges spanning the pathak. prague is a jewel with the middle any of history a city on the moon. the dreariness of the commons deraa is history. now prague is a popular destination for tourists from around the globe. to raise a similar to move on and it's here the right to observe the hustle and bustle in the czech capital from an amused distance. yes though it is pulling nose first goal too good of a. united opposite that it could have been a. host but as obama. is.

yeah city. that he was and. to raise a semi and her living as a translator her first novel is the story of a young woman who tried and failed to fit in wants to walk from scratch and disappointed she makes the radical decision to move into an old wardrobe left. the country by. by there she could live with other people with her sister her girlfriend her family and. on me but she doesn't want to be there and deal with other people. because she needs to deal with herself. is. the same time she's somehow incapable of taking action and can't afford her own

apartment. so that coverage gives her a bit of freedom in this provisional situation by hiding in their progress orders throughout. the protagonist feels lost in a way which could perhaps only happen in the success driven and consumer oriented western world it's a story that says honest as it is that. the one constant in the young woman's life is a friendly vietnamese man she lets her use the washroom in the shop and gets over smile and something to eat. and this is more than a mere detail it's a nod to multiculturalism at a time when czech politicians often disparage the country's vietnamese minority is the czech republic xenophobia in twenty fifteen at the height of europe's refugee crisis the country accepted less than two hundred people in a good move out soon is for my generation it's extreme. really painful to hear that

the czech republic refused to accept refugees. i didn't refuse to the government refused to i myself helped refugees who had to flee thing and get hold of me when i drove to hungary and took a good look at the situation. and i for my own opinion who get mocked. she says of course people in the czech republic appreciate the material freedoms and the opportunities to travel that they now have but she says many people's mindsets are slower to change some feeling secure and don't know how to handle freedom. does that worry her. not in the last. eight finn that he mentions in these i think people can see for themselves if they've elected the wrong politician. villain the title as time goes on they notice ok maybe that wasn't so great. and i was progress by and sometimes you have to try things out before you realize that's

a bad apple i won't use one of those again so take me call from. prague castle is the city's landmark and houses the office of the czech president the current president me last the months approach china and pro russia stance has divided the country in the ukraine conflict he sided with russia and in twenty fifteen he called the wave of refugees flooding into europe unorganized invasion. toppled a shocked when seen with elected president you don't wait for for a truly free country both before nine hundred eighty nine and after as a writer journalist and since twenty levon as program director of the bus love how the library. like a huge pendulum with lots of havel it's one is high to one side is possible now it's right at the bottom but i hope to reach the other side again. harvell was czechoslovakia's last press. event and the first president of the czech

republic after slovakia seceded in one thousand nine hundred three a former dissident was also a celebrated writer and a moral authority and shortly before his death vaslav personally brought topple to the library topple continues to curate the library's cultural program as half a would have wanted and he's kept on writing unusual novels his latest a sensitive person starts off as a road movie about a family of artists but soon turns into a commentary on modern european society. for sure not again a comedian to. this strange family is led by a father who's around my age. who because he still has this desire to discover western europe. it is what has europe this mental image that he has no longer exists for his will you know. instead he encounters an unfriendly

europe full of social tension plagued by crises and with accords of migrants walking around in that particular crew who are called trant of school. so he returns to his homeland with all of its brothels scrapyards and boss it might not be the prettiest but at least it's good fun the novel and toppled the state award for literature in twenty seventeen and much public criticism. prague is booming and is now among the ten richest regions muir of the days when people here four for socialism with a human face on long gone. it's easier to imagine right or front kafka walking through the city's alleyways at the start of the twentieth century back then prague was a magnet for artists and writers in check and german as the city was still part of the hops back empire. as a witness and others yes no. three things also nice looking so picturesque is the

home but underneath the surface there are a few graves a few bodies lying buried on top of one another and in the end we have to live with these corpses these ghosts of the past and the hilly. jaroslav through dish study check history and says that to do that you need to know german otherwise he'd never have been able to conduct the research for his novel winter birds last journey it's a comical tribute to train travel to central europe and life in general written in german. a month allen when you look at the map of the railway routes in austria hungary in one nine hundred thirteen and compare it with a map of the routes in central europe today you can see how many are left. for what is it i'm told that's all of these routes this station where we are now they all existed back then we had to get out as a disk option damo solace together with his melancholy geriatric nasty young kraus

ninety nine year old penciled in to back embarked on a journey into the past taking his cue from a detailed guidebook dating back from one thousand thirteen he's drawn ever deeper into the country's history and his own. bat soldier from stuart's on to some little ones and a lot of acts of losses that i want to gain with czechoslovakia and stuff. stuart's also some go for months and then after the crisis. will be a scholar from all stores also some governments and only after a few it says the coalition come from own stores themselves up and go nuts and one of the afghans expedition was the soviets caught outside the former hoops for peter stands for talks for the life of. winter back me endless through the course of history bringing the past to light in spite of these often sad events it's a sheer delight to be along for the ride. change of location polk arrest

a city of contrasts with its grand socialist boulevards. characterless apartment blocks. and rundown buildings. romania's capital is it once dynamic and at a standstill. your country rescue is one of romania's leading authors he's a masterful storyteller and an intellectual who isn't afraid to address uncomfortable truths that people who are poor. in the ninety's stayed for most of them stay poor data stand out the bleeding good didn't change but at the same time. there is now a class of very beach people who got their reach most of them ninety percent of them because of the corruption. corruption remains and in demick problem in romania . it was rife under the communist regime dictator nicolay church

a school who was executed in the revolution of one nine hundred eighty nine. the monstrous palace of parliament is a reminder of his megalomania. the old guard regrouped under the banner of the party of social democracy and corruption continued to fester even after romania joined the e.u. and out here the problem is got people who are. ready to be problems with you but just these. fires are part option. got into the parliament and. these kind of people make the laws. and of course they make the laws. against a free justice. the government has sought to ease penalties for corruption offenses by politicians hundreds of thousands have rallied against the erosion of the rule of law warning of a return to autocratic rule. oh. well

the left leaning populist government has shown little willingness to listen it has strong backing among its voter base the rural poor. the. very very. big power band the spot be has its very lives on the poorest and less less educated people. rescue's latest novel solano weed has yet to be published in english translation it's protectionist is more concerned about the community's well being than his own carter eskew says he has learned that literature doesn't just need to be appealing it needs to address human concerns to. maybe as a reaction to remain is tense political situation.

my model presents by no doubt to them or theme but i couldn't go down look as on today's model might he she been across all of that the ban on extra says on saturn's as a national fund and it's a pain in the set but the. dan de lay on my friends issue floyd if you know matt open or are you. on totem to east. live in your burnished his novel was a surprise success in romania it's the story of a young woman who painstakingly tries to build a life for herself in book arrest while her mother works in spain. punished and knows what it's like to feel abandoned her mother too has worked in western europe for years one of some four million romanians. i read recently of reports of the un i think it was with the ten fastest depopulating countries in the world and they were all ten in eastern europe and germany was among them not the. first not on the first place but still and it was

like all our neighbors hungry ukraine moldova they were all there in the list and it's. it's weird and makes you think because it was a global import. migrant workers sent a lot of money home but romania needs doctors teachers engineers and childcare workers and their critical voices. really a burnished who doesn't want to leave the country even if she's been thinking about it for years she feels she belongs here but daily life for the young author and translator is anything but easy the cost of living is high and the minimum wage low . so can authors make a living in romania. i think everybody has the feeling that you have to be thankful to see your name on the book cover and then just you know feed yourself with the glory they don't expect you to. ask to be paid for it.

advance payments are uncommon and print runs are secret there are neither wholesalers nor such a thing as a fixed book price the market is small and dominated by international best sellers translations of which don't pay much. money bookshops also sell wine gift items and t. to make ends meet. some booksellers had reservations about stocking. oxenberg and bernstein not because it's badly written but because it takes on a national taboo. in june one thousand forty one romanian troops massacre the jewish population of the city of yosh the yosh program more than ten thousand people were killed. to this day many romanians refuse to recognize their country's role in the holocaust. i feel racial hatred is undermining humanity what saddens me in particular is this

is what i said in one interview that the goal of my book is to help create a better world among my readers and you. could see nearly this. and that was singled out for ridicule by numerous hostile media outlets wish i could hear. what i'm going to meet the video stealing. today just four thousand jews live in romania it seems only a matter of time before jewish life here vanishes altogether all that remains is the communities architectural heritage and memories many of which inform me who are storing novels of tomato i'm not so young anymore and i wanted to write something that would make a difference what something that carried a certain weight at the end so i could walk through the rest of my life with my head held high for. which he should his novel is one of forty books from romania

that have recently been published in germany royal works by uncompromising authors who take a stand. one thousand five hundred kilometers further east lies to police in the capital of the eurasian country of georgia. but the city itself is more european than asian it's teeming with life and singularly beautiful. in tbilisi is historical center the buildings from past centuries are being lovingly restored and the crumbling remains of the soviet era of being swept away. highly acclaimed georgian dramatist and critics doubt it is following the changes to the city his country and its inhabitants closely. after decades of russian occupation where is the independent republic headed and how is it dealing with its past i think it needs

years and years of experience stability and peace and economy development in the country to start talking about realizing in recent king our past. for georgians the past means centuries. a foreign room exploitation and oppression . it means jazz a stunning system of injustice soviet propaganda. as well as the hardships after georgia gained its independence in one nine hundred ninety one. lack of political stability corruption and violence. poverty and hunger. battles over the breakaway republics of a passing and suffer a seizure we are so much preoccupied with this boiling temperature and this boiling political situation all the time that no one actually cares to start careful and

quiet and calm a research of the previous history of where the roots of all these problems come from. that's one reason why georgian literature is so in lightning it meanders its way through the small mind and tells the stories of its people revealing george's darkest sides and the many upheavals. it's still looks that i must or other arabs. are so proud now what's. missing in the reset of that exactly so. now it's and it's from god this is through signalling sheets so that's. what's normal is goes over there and it's the whole lot of those resume in that big number which are about me about almost. a man being killed across the way. the whole thing because each night he would stand on his balcony and watch his new neighbor and his old another. now the good looking young

man is dead and syrup takes action he longs to have a job again and now he knows how he can get one. done a good many years novel far been done nothing at all colors of night is a crime. sex in the late summer of two thousand and twelve when georgians protested against the prison abuse scandal videos cropped up in the media which showed prisoners being obese and bygones. tens of thousands took to the streets the country was on the brink of collapse. then on october first oligarchy and billionaire bit in a ivanishvili assumed power and became georgia's prime minister. he stepped down a year later but remains influential to this day overlooking tbilisi is a vanished really is futuristic glass house designed by japanese architect shouldn't talk amounts of. in general george and culture is the culture of extremities and i really don't like the extremity well i'll take the characters who

are normal people who are not distinguished by any. anything and put them in boiling situation and of the observing something terrible happening program was that's that's my primary interest in. what happens in me as novel reveals much about contemporary georgian society about its much or culture in which homosexuality remains a tipping that it's fear of change even positive change. on the streets of tbilisi there's little indication of the sense of paralysis here things are lively and constantly in motion. although monotony does appear to be the rule in the cities outlying districts. really grew up in a village just outside the city she lived right next door to a children's home

a relic of the soviet era. this is pretty much what it looked like then too when it was known as the home for idiots. today it houses refugees from a policy and south ossetia. in the early one nine hundred ninety s. . its residents were unwanted children who were poor neglected abused and brutalized. they laughed and told us about a girl that they held down while other children richter. the girl cried and then the other children made fun of her. and i noticed this it become a kind of ritual have been given to this often. just some twenty years later nona ectomy sheerly has worked this childhood memories into a disturbing novel called the pear field she came up with the idea after seeing her former claymates begging on the street. now she's given these unloved and damaged

souls a voice her protectiveness layla is a strong and angry young girl who fights back against the constant humiliation and degradation. slim stone took this the worst and most malicious soviet legacy is that people don't analyze things. people haven't learned to deal with reality and they don't believe they can change things and they never learn they have the power to change things with their own two hands. so what will the future bring and we'll all georgians have a place in it. the ricer photographer actor and tour guide our field he cuts our travels around the country often returning to tbilisi. he wanders between worlds the thoughtful of. his novel elephant from the south which has already won several prizes in georgia takes the first person narrator on a tour of tbilisi for a day with flashbacks going as far back as the one nine hundred twenty s. . r.

ford people are are who are feeling here. harry feeling go feel pain like my characters who are not hard being. behind some excuses. for really interesting people. who are developing the characters all very light also who can forgive themselves because it tells the story of an identity crisis full of ethnic conflicts and questions of the right or wrong lifestyle of truth and integrity. he says that the period when georgia was part of the soviet union damaged georgian society today georgians are still living with the consequences which are deeply ingrained in every family history. that's why i made my character sagal such a man the son of core opted for the soviet should go away economy balls and from

other side. recognition. the son of george and i wish him briefed and i gave him with this very heavy in harry teach which he has to. carry all his life and fight through the streets the elephants of the south is the story of his generation once after a public reading a young girl came up to him and thanked him now she understood by her uncle is such a drinker she said and by her neighbor was the way he was. sorry think if you will be peace on the sling somehow step by step forward they were local water safety because i see young people i see by should be a generation. more open mind be very more powerful very been very scary for him to be in very poor free then we are my generation has

a lot of conflicts we carry all our life. today georgia is looking towards the west english has replaced russian as its first foreign language traveling to the e.u. without a visa is possible georgia is a country in transformation and its. literature is a real discovery. and that's all for arts twenty one today and our literary travels to prague bucharest and tbilisi.

and europe has a chain reaction of costs. around six hundred years ago. the renaissance. architects. scientists and art. took

a tour of the tallest midget to mimic. the renaissance tractor fifteen minutes on d w. we're not here to judge but to eliminate prejudice and. we're not here to change your opinion but to open some space for different points of view we're not here to speak on behalf of anybody but to let everybody speak for themselves. not sure to give the right answers or to ask the right questions. we're not here to indoctrinate but to listen.

plus ninety connect to an unbiased agenda subscribe now on you tube. so we may improvements all the time we have more public transportation know within the big cities. some of it is the car sharing the point is that energy has to calm the form it could mean softs renewable we need to produce wonderful better ways for cars so that all cars will while in the electricity with no emission batteries or the high capacity of electricity it will take us our hundreds of kilometers it's just very tough feeling a problem it's chemistry physics it's material science. but we will do it if you

take time but you'll.

and.