i'm not laughing at the germans well i guess sometimes i am but they say laughing with that. i mean i think deep into the german culture. you can take that as granted they all you know it's all about who you know i'm rachel join me for me to every monday of course. you. cannot but you know i write for children but adults are welcome to read my books too that makes me a bit less of an literary outcomes of just like children are not that i don't live with that kind of good.

parenting 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 fallen. that's why do you think

that was such a delightful experience and of course it was a crazy project yakked you just didn't think it could be done who would read a book based on a film they're always bad actually. and the film is so amazing that i can imagine transforming it into words. but as when someone gives you an impossible task you have no choice right. it's wonderful to hear that things that look has expanded a universe of his film 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 how does heist. and commission doesn't. we met cornelia funk 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. if i saw 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 any hopes you know and they thanked me saying that i was their child you can type in in. out of there i hear the same thing in germany a very how can that be in the book the reality in india is so different because and yet my books are in fact shaped by german reality or american reality and not by reality in india it's a question that's still a big mystery how he was when i was in guadalajara mexico how i found myself weeping and war not the and 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 and time on the land to me it seems like that in places or 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 stan for a little for their literature is not just entertainment. only a phone call got her start illustrating children's books more than 30 years ago she soon realized that she wanted to write to. the 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 comes from making a monkey and the doctors at the time writing fantasy was frowned upon to see to write and yet there's a long tradition in on endless very long and usual when i tell english journalists about this they say but your great fantasy storytellers such a tale out not all of her books are fantasy in 1903 she wrote the 1st wild tricks 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 were ready for to go so. he. hands off mississippi which was published in german in 1997 and turned into a film a decade later seems almost old fashioned by comparison. it's also about a gang of kids. shooting once easy. to find

a shady character lurking about the number i'm no marsupial and here try to. catch up on my to shoot and shoot a hot dog gives me the it seems tomorrow. i. featuring a lot of slapstick and a deal like summer scenery this is ranked among the best cordelia from the adaptations to. our. at the start of her career cornelia funke i had to write 3 or 4 books a year to support a family all of them were 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. i'm on the miss 100 child who has suffered abuse or deprivation reads a bit like this the flawed in her other children tell me they never had a family up but they read the book and suddenly understood what it must feel. that the book has given the child a kind of safe space inside of a space they've never experienced but they can still find some of their own reality and a cunt that children don't want false illusions i can't take them seriously. when i get letters like this from readers i realize i'm also talking about the terrible things of our world. but that has to be a part of a fantasy writer. with the floor it was the 1st of cornelia focus 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 $100.00 most influential people alongside bill clinton nelson mandela and the dalai lama. she had won fans around the world and a few critics. and fans i received in that are from a hang fan who said she left the theater floor to read it why was there only one golden axe and then when i felt really guilty. i thought oh 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 so i promised the reader that my next hero would be a girl and that was mickey in current intent that is of the hook 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

a shot is far better 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 haven't. 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 i was grown up. and that night we were in the library. so i opened

a copy book which was bought. for several chapters about nothing happened. and it appeared out of nowhere. in the book the darkest bandit working for and able to. figure. 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 experiencing countless adventures involving lots of magic but violence to. continue they didn't only want to write a ripping 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 met v.o.c. they're fascists versus 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 to have what we think of as our identity that's what we love most of us believe and they turn us into a compass is that's how fascism operate and that's what i depicted in income on 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 if there was supposed to be a 4th in current book coming i thought it was a trilogy and that it was over and was published i thought it is probably because illustrating a painting have become more important to me again he refused to go 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 thinking yes it is quite new at some point i realized oh man there is a new in caught but 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 we all written and 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 of resorts to fantasy to escape reality like in in cart the characters and compass both come alive and take her off to a magical realm and habited by a strange creature. the fawn sends her into dangerous situations that she has to

master on her own. the film is a dark and terrifying world filled with all menace beauty. canaria funk has said she would only write the book if she was allowed to retain the film's horror. for the next and i said i'm not going to change anything in the story that i will not make it younger yet i will not censor it and i will not remove the sexual elements what war against women looks like also the 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 have an to size it he doesn't trivialize over glorify evil that's why i had my again without tara. in del toro's film there are some terrifying scenes like this one went off alien and counters and eyeless monster in an underground room. after she eats one of the for bitten fruits the monster rises from its lethargy.

its 1st victims are the fairies that are supposed to accompany and protect ophelia thanks. the family guy is set 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.

clearly a focus says neither the film nor the book are intended for a specific age group. and she doesn't like being labelled 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 get it very nicely canadia do you know what's the difference between an author for children and an author for grownups as i said we know that what's the difference he said the author is what children love the audience or and i think there's something else assisting about the adult book about our time but we found out sometimes they are really ugly rivalries between all says of him i've never seen that in children's books i think as i got there is most solidarity what it's almost like a guilty there's

a lot of love for the crown vic to bits of him and i think it's wonderful and human of will know 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 are but i can live with that helps and i have a kind of good. i can in a fun cause sometimes feels that fantasy is under rated as a genre because. i think that there is still a lot of misunderstanding or does people say oh it's escapism all that readers want to live in another world cups or 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. why does 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. i was just think that's going on

a planet that speeding past a viable and there is an exploding sun a box somewhere so 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 the very concrete historical moment of guns concrete has to moment because i don't 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 lifted 1000 years from now. and our concept of time and space where 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 about you

or you can bring the dead back as ghosts a way shakespeare did you can speak to all those aspects of existence that access stands on. cornelia bunker often works on several projects at once. but these days her social projects are just as important to her and 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. in my 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 or friends or artists i know often guest and bringing them together i found is even more exciting than i

had imagined it would be special and not. living in the united states was another of her dreams. it came true for her in 2005 when she moved there with her family. but not quite a year later her husband unexpectedly died for nearly a phone call was left alone with their 2 children. however i always loved the u.s. 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 another day is 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 why is that and it's such a colorful and diverse and culturally rich environment that i live in every day in los angeles and $128.00 languages are spoken here interest level 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. as an america what's good about america is of course that it has a very strong tradition of rebellion and not of a beauty and. with it who has it right now the resistance is just as strong as the other side. both sides do exist but they do in germany now too 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 politically and at the moment i'm supposing lawyers that are trying to protect and help the children of the migrant children for the lawyers who are trying to reach the children and support them at

this verdict i'd rather be putting my money towards environmental protection but this is what's needed in this political situation i'm very active politically active that's my only consolation at home 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. argumentative 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 of 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. i think. that was. the best of all here or away from the big city she finds peace and tranquility. here would you ever return to germany night it's been you know i'm not someone who goes back i mean i'm the kind of person who always goes forward 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 when 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 2800 cornélie

a 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 did ever hoped for. that's a victory so it was like this ok 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 became the artist in residence project has brought so many changes to my life that is over for that's pretty exciting. the time has come to hand on the battles are to tell myself you've created an accomplished by 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. a month 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.

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the bag the but. this is the w. news live from berlin more than a dozen u.s. cities border curfews in a bid to stem violent protests over the death of george floyd protesters clashed with police and intense and angry scenes nationwide in minneapolis police used tear gas and rubber bullets on protesters breaking and nighttime curfew to look at the latest from our correspondent there also coming up top.