what secrets lie behind these memos. find out in an immersive experience and explore fascinating world cultural heritage sites. w. world heritage three sixty fifty. welcome to arts twenty one. almost three decades have passed since the collapse of the soviet union and arts twenty one is on a journey to explore the literary world of post soviet republics or 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 top of. prague is a jewel with the middle any of history a city on the moon. the dreariness of the communist era is history. now prague is a popular destination for tourists from around the globe. to raise a similar lives here the writer observes the hustle and bustle in the czech capital from an amused distance. yes though it is well and always first goal to get over. is lucky. yeah city keep up that he has a new india some us a bad mood. but. to resist some want to move

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 often hurt and disappointed she makes the radical decision to move into an old wardrobe left in a courtyard. seen by. by there she could live with other people with her sister her girlfriend her family and. withdraw out on me but she doesn't want to be there and deal with other people. because she needs to deal with herself like i think 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 height in there. is it 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 absurd. the one constant in the young woman's life is a friendly vietnamese man she lets her use the washroom in the shop and give service modern something to eat. this is more than a mere detail it's a nod to multiculturalism at a time when czech politicians often disparage the countries be it means 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 and again about soon is for my generation it's extremely painful to hear that the czech republic refused to accept refugees. i didn't refuse to the government refused to i myself helped refugees. he had to flee from me when i drove to hungary and took

a good look at the situation. and i formed my own opinion. 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. the villain the title as time goes on they notice ok maybe that wasn't so great. and i was progress like sometimes you have to try things out before you realize that's a bad apple i won't use one of those again. proc casillas the city's landmark and houses the office of the czech president the current president

. approach china and pro russia stance has divided the country into ukraine conflict he sided with russia and in twenty fifteen he called the wave of refugees flooding into europe unorganized days and. the hakim toppled was shocked when c.n.n. was elected president he 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. of history is like a huge pendulum with lots love harvell 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. must love havel was czechoslovakia as last president 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 of moral authority. shortly before his death vaslav

personally brought top post 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. pressure not to do no comedian to if this strange family is led by a father who's around my age. he still has this desire to discover western europe. and it is what has europe this mental image that he has no longer exists as well 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. those oh. 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 for 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 for for socialism with a human face on long gone. it's easier to imagine right up 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 john as the city was still part of the hops back empire. yes everything's also nice looking so picturesque home but underneath the surface there are a few graves a few bodies lying buried on top of one another. in the end we have to live with

these corpses these ghosts of the past and the hillie. 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 central europe and life in general written in german. a month. 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. four quarters ago 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 damaso alice together with his melancholy geriatric nasty young kraus ninety nine year old pencil vinterberg 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. doubts of the form stores into some little ones and only after losses that i want to again want to czechoslovakia and stop. all stores also some broken ones and one after the crisis. only as a scholar from all stores also some book runs and only a few exist as the communist income own stores themselves up notes and one of them's expedition the soviets outside the front groups for video stands for towards the front for a slice 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 book arrest the city of contrast with its grand socialist boulevards. character. this apartment

blocks. and rundown buildings. romania's capital is it one stein emic and at a standstill. future 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 baddest found out the bleeding good didn't change but at the same time. that he's now a class of very beach people who've got to 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 of dictator nicholai 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 continue to fester even after romania joined the e.u. and the real problem is that people who have. already big problem so you can buy just these. fires but option. got into the parliament and. these kind of people make the laws not 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. that the left leaning populist government has shown little willingness to listen it has . backing among its voter base the rural poor. very

very. big power band the spot be has its very life songs up for us and less and less educated people. to rescue his latest novel so no weed has yet to be published in the english translation it's protectionist is more concerned about the communities well being than his own country rescue says he's 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 the more theme but i still couldn't go down new president duties with mighty sheen across or that the ban on extra says on shot on

it as a national fund gets up in the set about thirty lead. friends issue floyd if you know matt open or are you. that east will. 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. furnished 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 a report of the un i think it was with. fosters 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 all the area hungary ukraine moldova they were all there in the list and that'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. love junia burnished 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 is a fixed book price the market is small and dominated by international best sellers

translate. of which don't pay much. many bookshops also sell wine gift items and t. to make ends meet. some booksellers had reservations about stocking catalina who'll yorks novel oxenberg and bernstein not because it's badly written but because it takes on a national taboo. in june one thousand nine hundred 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 refused to recognize their country's role in the holocaust. paramus tical would ask that i theology 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 if you. could team aliased this. and that was singled out for ridicule by numerous hostile media outlets wish to pick. one over me the media lost. 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 stirring novel. to go 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 that's was. which he should his novel is one of forty books from romania that have recently been published in germany wrote 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. into police 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 its got bunia 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

a movie thinking our past. for georgians the past means centuries. a foreign room exploitation and oppression. it means jazz of standard 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 posse 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 seven 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. us still looks. now. i'm sure that it was as. you say gotten the better to exactly. know on its own it's from god this subtle signal issue so that's . what's normal because a very dark and dumb hollowed almost resume in a big number which i doubt mr obama says fully. a man has been killed across the way syrup so 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. doesn't get to me as novel farben

done enough all colors of night is a crime. thrillist 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 by guards. tens of thousands took to the streets the country was on the brink of collapse. then on october first dark and billionaire between 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 wheel is futuristic glass house designed by japanese architect. in general george and culture is the culture of extreme eaters and i really don't like that extra little while i'll take the characters who are normal people who are not distinguished by any or anything and put them in boiling situation and keep of the

observing something terrible happening to them because that's that's my primary interest in. what happens in me as novel reveals much about contemporary georgian society about its much a culture in which homosexuality remains a to boom about 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 had become a kind of ritual have been good we did this often it was. a fast some twenty years later nona it to me sweetly has with this childhood memories into a disturbing novel called the pear field she came up with the idea after seeing her former playmates 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 are still peacock travels around the country often returning to tbilisi. he wanders between worlds a thoughtful observer. 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. . or forty paper or two or three.

harry feeling both being paid life by characters who are not hard being. behind some excuse. for really are interested people. who are very real of p s a character's all very life 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. it's why i made my character sagal such a man the son of core opted for so we should all work on the balls and from other side. recognition. the son of george and i mentioned briefly and

i gave him with this very heavy in harry teach which he has to. carry all his life 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. are you think if you will be peace or be slain somehow step by step would be a low power suicide because i see young people i see by to be very sure they are more open minded they are more powerful very warm bursty for him to be invariable free than we are my dear regime here is a local complex 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. me.

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was. some time in the twenty sixth. my great granddaughter. put the world like in your life time in around half a century. your world will be around two degrees warmer. inevitably sea levels rise by at least one meter in this century. group going to have some climate impacts return greater than what we see already. it's really frightening. why aren't people more concerned. a little yellow. stars may thirty first.

will you. what's coming up for the book is playing you know how flimsy to talk about here on . the monday is legal every week here comes the. plus ninety the new channel for an independent view on current affairs in turkey. the latest developments accurate analysis. replaced with a comprehensive background. for some love and political and social topics considered from different perspectives. we cover the issues that move turkey on a unique platform for information. plus ninety connect to an unbiased agenda subscribed no on youtube.

plane . this is deja vu news live from berlin at least forty one people are killed after a passenger plane makes an emergency landing at moscow the tail of the aircraft belonging to a russian carrier our float was engulfed in flames when it touched down well go truck correspondent and moscow. also coming up israel's prime minister orders massive strikes on gaza.