with different languages we fight for different things that's fine but we all stick up for freedom freedom of speech and freedom of press. giving freedom of choice global news that matters to w made for minds. cannot be i write for children but adults are welcome to read my books too that makes me a bit of a literary out concert just like children are not that i live with that kind of good.

cause a labyrinth this is some bird drama about fascism betrayal and magic by the mexican filmmaker guillermo del toro and it's clearly a focus favorite film. for the author it has all the ingredients of good fantasy magic depth as well as a clear underlying stance. when guillermo del toro asked her whether she would turn his film into a book she hesitated at 1st but then she accepted the offer and that turned into pan's labyrinth the labyrinth of the fun. stuff.

that was such a delightful experience and of course it was a crazy project yakked. i didn't think it could be done who would read a book based on a film they're always bad and the film is so amazing that i can imagine transforming it into words. but when someone gives you an impossible task you have no choice right. it's wonderful to hear that things that book has expanded a universe of his will and i had to invent short stories to flesh out the plot and back stories for the characters and that's what he wanted and he didn't give me any instructions he didn't interfere with my writing at all that's sized. and we missed and. we met cordelia func in hamburg the last stop on her tour of germany to promote the book she lived here with her family for a long time before moving to los angeles in 2005 hamburg is also where her career as a writer began. we

1st met her nearly a phone call in hamburg 12 years ago just after the publication of the 3rd volume of her in cart trilogy that was the series that launched her international career she's meanwhile written more than 70 books they've been translated into 50 languages and have sold more than 26000000 copies. in cart was turned into a hollywood film the chico produced another unusual experience for the author. recently she fulfilled a long cherished dream and bought an avocado farm in malibu today cordelia funk is one of the most successful fantasy writers in the world she has fans everywhere and not all of them are children and young people. expressing it in any amount but i remember going to india and all of

a sudden all these people between the age of 24 and 30 were asking if they could have me up to you know and they thanked me saying that i was their child you can type in in out in there i have the same thing in germany of a venue how can that be in the street the reality is. india is so different because and yet when my books are in fact shaped by german reality or american reality and not by reality in india it's for me it's a question that's still a big mystery how he was when i was in what are the heart of mexico how i found myself weeping into nor not the end in fact the readers there understood exactly what i was writing about every question they asked me revealed a depth of understanding that i've rarely encountered anywhere else so one time on the line to me it seems like that in places like countries where life isn't always easy where people are still forced to grapple with those big questions our guilt good and evil violence via all the existential questions you often find that people

have a very profound understanding of literature and it is for stand for a little put there for literature is not just entertainment. got her start illustrating children's books more than 30 years ago she soon realized that she wanted to write to me. as fancy out of many of those stories didn't match my pictures or were just very realistic at the time in germany fantasy was very much looked down upon it's an interesting phenomenon in germany we tend to distance ourselves from our history of fantasy or from e.t.a. hoffmann of the grimm's fairy tales of one commercial making in money and the doctors at the time writing fantasy was frowned upon and yet there's a long tradition in on endless very long years ago when i tell english journalists about this they say but your great fantasy storytellers are such a tale out not all of her books are fantasy in 1993 she wrote the 1st wild chicks book about a gang of girls and their rivalry with

a gang of boys and their encounters with occasionally aggravating adults. there are now 5 in the series and 3 have been filmed. in this one the girls and boys are now teenagers dealing with the emotional turmoil of romance. the film has been praised for taking the emotional lives of their young protagonists seriously as have the books. ghost hunters is a fantasy series about 2 boys and a girl who fight against who would have guessed ghosts it's also been adapted for the screen. you get ready for the some. hands off mississippi which was published in german in 1907 and turned into a film a decade later seems almost old fashioned by comparison. it's also about a gang of kids. once easy. to find

a shady character lurking about the. fisherman to shoot and shoot a hop on the what gives movement since march. was. featuring a lot of slapstick and a deal like summer scenery this is ranked among the best cordelia from the adaptations. i found. at the start of her career cornelia funke i had to write 3 or 4 books a year to support her family all of them were a hit in germany. international breakthrough came with the thief lord a fast paced novel about growing up and sticking together. the main protagonist is scipio the leader of a gang of orphans in venice who go through

a bunch of adventures together. femina miss 100 and then a child who has suffered abuse or deprivation reads a bit like. the floor didn't hurt there either children tell me they never had a family up but they read the book and suddenly understood what it must feel like man that book has given the child a kind of safe space a space they've never experienced but they can still find some of their own reality and it's a cunt that children don't want false illusions they can't take them seriously. when i did letters like this from readers i realize i'm also talking about the terrible things about our world that has to be a part of a fantasy writer. the thief lord was the 1st of cornelia from his books to be translated into english that was in 2000 to 3 years later she was included on time

magazine's list of the world's 100 most influential people alongside bill clinton nelson mandela and the dalai lama. she had one fans around the world and a few critics. common fan but i received a letter from a young fan who said she'd love to thier florida but why was there only one girl then asked me to and then. i felt really guilty. i thought look you've been doing the same as all women we like boys so we write about boys and turn them into the heroes of our stories. instead of saying i'm a female writer what and i have a female heroine as a fish so i promised the reader that my next hero would be a girl and that was make. me into that is a work as that happened often you know that readers young ones are older one is have made suggestions. or you that is yes for example in my chick series

a reader gross asking to see that our that happens every so often and it can be very inspiring and so on the readers get so immersed in the worlds i've created i often say that i hear my readers footsteps and heart beats in those worlds and sometimes they love them so passionately that they almost know more about them than i do as the 1st made up of his. in-car turned cornelli a phone call into one of the world's best known fantasy authors. in 2008 the magical tale about maybe and her father moan was adapted by hollywood with a big budget and special effects to match. making and mo have an unusual gift they can bring fictional characters to life but in return real people have to take their place that happened to make his mother and all grown up. and that night we were in the library. so i open the copy book we

just bought. a card. for several chapters of nothing happened. and they pick. the book the burghers bandit working for a new book too. just think of. my boys brought them out your voice brought them out of the book and her mother went to. the top works. father and daughter set off to do everything to find her experience in countless adventures involving lots of magic but violence to. cornelia didn't only want to write a gripping book she wanted to send out a political message. in one of the themes of in the heart is fascism not the gang in the mountains they're not my fios either fascists. they blackmail us without

children they blackmail us with their husbands and our friends insist on them fight and that's what's most terrifying about dictators and fascism and they attack us using the things we're most proud of what we think of as our identity what we love most of us believe and they turn us into accomplices that's how fascism operate and that's what i depicted in incarceration intent and house but i didn't call it by its name because i thought it would be more timeless this way if the smartest idea was there was supposed to be a 4th in current book coming out i thought it was a trilogy and that it was over so it was published all good i thought so too probably because illustrating and painting have become more important to me again to go so that sometimes i draw characters and don't know who they are and then they pop up in my books one is that a new way of working is not yes it is quite new at some point i realized oh man there is a new in cart book emerging out of this it's called the color of revenge and it's

about the struggle between words and images which one is more powerful. it's not idea that's always fascinated me that's called and it's found its way into encounters team what does it mean to write all written as action it's a nice way to engage with these ideas. what is stronger the word or the image that question is also explored in pan's labyrinth. the story is set in spain and 9445 years after the fascists won the spanish civil war. it is a battle between good and evil in a world full of violence and horror. of failure resorts to fantasy to escape reality like in in cart the characters and compass both come alive in take her off to a magical ground than habited by a strange creature. the fawn sends her into dangerous situations that she has to

master on her own watched the film is a dark and terrifying world filled with all menace beauty which can only affront has said she would only write the book if she was allowed to retain the film's horror. for the next time i said i'm not going to change anything in the story i will not make it younger yet i don't censor it and i will not remove the sexual elements what war against women looks like also mean everything here am i put in the film and i won't play down the violence because it's the truth and this is what violence looks like he doesn't remain to size it he doesn't trivialize or glorify evil that's why i had my again my dad tara. in del toro's film there are some terrifying scenes like this one when a failure encounters and eyeless monster in an underground room. after she eats one of the for bitten fruits the monster rises from its latter day.

its 1st victims are the fairies that are supposed to accompany and protect ophelia . the family guy is said to be the next victim of. the monster has it in for all the children of this world. is this new book still appropriate for a young audience with all the brutal scenes and the historical background of spanish fascism.

camellia focus says neither the film nor the book are intended for a specific age group. and she doesn't like being labeled as only a writer for children and young adults even though that can sometimes have its advantage. in mine and usually my english publisher once i put it very nicely couldn't do you know what's the difference between an author for children and an order for grownups as i said we know that what's the difference he said the authors were children love the audience or and i think there's something else assisting about the adult book about our time but we find out sometimes they're really ugly rivalries between also is him i've never seen that in children's books as i got there is most solidarity what it's almost like a guilty there's

a lot of love for the crown to bits with him and i think it's wonderful human awful now about this and that's why i usually say yes i write for children but adults are welcome to read my books too you know that makes me a bit of a literary outcast just like children but i can live with that helps and that kind of equipment so i can only a function sometimes feels that fantasy is under-rated as a genre i see it. i think that there is still a lot of misunderstanding or does people say oh it's escapism and all that readers want to live in another world cup sort that's absurd because there is no other world to govern whatever we. even if it's another planet it's always an interpretation of this world and always a love letter to this world deserve it i deserve this world is what feeds our imaginations what is our only source of inspiration when. and this world is so multifaceted and unbelievable that we can only express a tiny part of this magic. just think that's sitting on

a planet that's speeding past a viable and there's an exploding sun a box somewhere and there's probably a fly on the wall here watching us in slow motion. to proceed all of this is reality right i think that fantasy just makes that more apparent whereas realistic narratives tend to focus on human reality and often have to do with a very concrete historical moment of. his talk moment because i know more one dimensional there are very one dimensional as i'd say we need to find a concept of reality that's a lot more multidimensional is especially at a time when we're destroying pretty much everything that's not human and humane and just think about it for a moment and you know what was here 15 years ago and what might be left 15 years from now. and our concept of time and space everything belongs together if we're to really comprehend reality his fantasy makes it easier to ask those big questions decide what's big and important what's evil about what's good comedy tour you can

bring the dead back as go say way shakespeare did you can speak to all those aspects of existence the excess tens i'm sure i can. often works on several projects at once. but these days are social projects are just as important to her especially her artist in residence program. she offers artists from all over the world a chance to stay at her farm for a couple of weeks. with a mind i've always wanted to live in a village together with all my creator friends i have lots of friends who make animated movies or music or they write on. many of my guests of friends the artists i know often guest and bringing them together i found is even more exciting than i

had imagined it would be special and the whole thing that saved us all so much. living in the united states was another of her dreams. came true for her in 2005 when she moved there with her family. but not quite a year later her husband unexpectedly died nearly a phone call was left alone with their 2 children. however i always loved the us even when i came here on my 1st but because i love how open the people are and i love the conviction that you can solve any problem on . their way of seeing problems as a challenge not an obstacle that i love that there's still an enduring faith in the future that even if it's sometimes hard to find these days. and above all i love the friendliness and everyday life and it's not insincere it's very true and genuine. and i've come to love being in

a country of immigrants is that and it's such a colorful and diverse and culturally rich environment that i live in every day in los angeles $128.00 languages are spoken here and just leave and you never know what kind of life story a person might have to tell you he leaves because 50 minute i wouldn't want to miss out on all of that i missed. american society has been undergoing major changes in recent years. the gap between rich and poor is growing ever wider. countless thousands are living on the streets. racists are growing bolder and flaunting their hatred in public. african americans are trying to defend themselves against violence the protests often end in clashes. battle lines are being drawn and hardening.

and since donald trump took office as president in 2017 the country has become even more divided. into an america so what's good about america is of course that it has a very strong tradition of rebellion and not of a beauty and still thorson it who has it right now the resistance is just as strong as the other side. both sides do exist but what they do in germany now to it's here and want to vent here i said immigration is good that's you now at last germany will get a bit more diverse to alert us to is that i could hear that once i got very quiet while the other got a very loud we have this polarization now all over the world to put it just that there are all sorts of things you can do you can disagree and at the moment i'm supposing lawyers that are trying to protect and help the children the migrant children and the lawyers who are trying to reach the children and support them of

this tear through to you i'd rather be putting my money towards environmental protection but this is what's needed in this political situation and i am very active politically active that's my only consolation at horse and then i also live in california the out of control state and federal state. california has introduced strict environmental standards for cars president trump wants them revoked opposition is also strong in california against the trumpet ministrations hard line immigration policy which include expediting the deportation of under. documented immigrants especially from latin america. take the battle is now out in the ohio valley for that california is fighting it and that's why i still like living here. in autumn 2017 cornelia funke a followed her dream of life in the countryside and bought a farm near malibu it's hurt not so little slice of heaven she's got sunshine and

green all year round as long as the bush fires don't come too close. to the network. and best of all here away from the big city she finds peace and tranquility. ever returned to germany night it's been you know i'm not someone who goes back and i you know i'm the kind of person who always goes forward and in 5 years i might be living in new zealand but i would never go back if i tried to explain it to children like this take a look at the world and how big it is i spend 45 years in one single country life and that's not all that inspiring i should have tried out a few more. and if i do i hope i'll have the courage and thirst for adventure to try out something totally different once again. in december 28 team cornelia phone

could turn 60 she decided it was time to take stock to children who are now adults at a job she enjoys doing and one that's made her world famous how does she view her life and what may yet be to come if she's already achieved everything she'd ever hoped for. that's a victory so it was like this ok camilla it's the last act let's see what you're going to do now 1st of all you hate exercise but you're going to have to do it a bit to stay intact and then the fact that i'm living in the country now has dramatic. it changed my life because the artist in residence project has brought so many changes to my life that is over for that's pretty exciting and there are the time has come to hand on the battles are to tell myself you've created and accomplish so much shop because you don't need to write a 1000 old books you need to pos on what you've learned so that others can take that test ovide that's when you have. a mind in which dreams have become

a reality and a passion to share her good fortune and experience with others cornelia from a world renowned author from germany whose own story is still being written. on the.

homelessness in poverty. 43000000 people mean united states are affected. even though many of them have steady jobs. who is choking the outcasts of the american dream. comforting in the wealthiest country in the last. 15 minutes on d. w. .

every journey begins with the 1st step and every language with the 1st word published in the. new coke is in germany to learn german why not come with him it's simple online on your mobile and free to satisfy d w z learning course nikos fake german made him seem. a male mounted. the 2nd season on the french system about the environment and still about society and it's still about us but all planets on the brink responses so don't believe that's most of the fish. hook up just a couple of reasons behind.

me. nor even what do they dream of at night. as cleaners they see the face of horror. their job censoring for the social media industry. in the uk there are thousands of so-called content monitors day for day they screw up terrifying images from online platforms some courage and jobs for starvation wage the strain is enormous. the cleaners or sworn to secrecy they are not allowed to talk about their work. and no one asks home leave for doing. i think. i need to stop or something along. the cleaners. shadow industry starts joining g w. this

is deja news line from ben and protests around across the us demanding justice for the joy of george floyd who was killed in police custody in the city of minneapolis any of this week beyond rest following his death has given way to a 4th night and demonstrations and violence from coast to coast also coming up the a year the u.s. and.