Have is a labyrinth this is some bird drama about fascism betrayal and magic by the mexican filmmaker Guillermo Del Toro and its 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 pans labyrinth the labyrinth of the fun. Stuff. Vickie that was such a delightful experience and of course it was a crazy project yakked huge just for absolute i didnt think it could be done who would read a book based on a film theyre always bad actually 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. Its 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 thats what he wanted and he didnt give me any instructions he didnt interfere with my writing at all how does heist. Help me i missed and. When that 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 shes meanwhile written more than 70 books theyve 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 Cornelia 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. Differ. I thought even in the 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 now and they thanked me saying that i was their child you can type in in out of their names i have 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 its for me its a question thats still a big mystery how he once when i was in guadalajara mexico i found myself weeping and one of 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 ive rarely encountered anywhere else and time on the land to me it seems like that in places or countries where life isnt 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 was for stan for a little put there for literature is not Just Entertainment nor. Can only a phone call got her start illustrating childrens books more than 30 years ago she soon realized that she wanted to write to. His fans the out of many of those stories didnt match my pictures or were just very realistic at the time in germany fantasy was very much looked down upon its an interesting phenomenon in germany we tend to distance ourselves from our history of fantasy from e. T. A. Hoffmann of the grimms fairy tales of one commission making in money and the doctors at the time writing fantasy was frowned upon and yet theres 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 while chick spoke about a gain of girls. 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 gassed ghosts its also been adapted for the screen. You were ready for to go so. Hands off mississippi which was published in german in 1997 and turned into a film a decade later seems almost fashion by comparison. Its also about a gang of kids. Actually once easy. To find a shady character lurking about the number im not much to do and try to. Push on my interest to ensure that you dont hop on the audience moot since tomorrow. I. 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 hit in germany. Her 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 for. Them on a miss 100 and then a child who has suffered abuse or deprivation reads a book like this the flawed in her either children tell me they never had a family up but they read the book and suddenly understood what it must feel like that a book has given the child a kind of safe space inside of a space theyve never experienced but they can still find some of their own reality and a comment that children dont want false illusions i cant take them seriously. If thats is when i get letters like this from readers i realize im also talking about the terrible things about the world. That has to be a part of a fantasy writer. But 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 magazines list of the worlds 100 most influential people alongside bill Clinton Nelson mandela and the dalai lama. She had won fans around the world and a few critics. A common fan i received a letter from a young fan who said shed love to thier flawed leave it in but why was there only one girl the next weekend and. I felt really guilty. I thought look youve 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 im a female writer what end i have a female heroine of so i promised the reader that my next hero would be a girl and that was made in catty intent thats the source of the hook as that happened often you that readers young ones or older one is have made suggestions. Or you thats is yes for example in my chick series a reader grows 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 ive created i often say that i hear my readers footsteps and heart beats and those worlds and sometimes they love them so passionately that they almost know more about them than i do as he has made a home of his. Incar turned cornelli a phone call into one of the worlds best known fantasy authors. In 2008 the magical tale about maggie and her father moan was adapted by hollywood with a big budget and special effects to match. Making and mo havent. 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 a little grown up. And that night we were in the library. So i open a copy book i just bought. A card. For several chapters about nothing happened. And appeared out of nowhere. 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. Cornelia frankly didnt only want to write a gripping book she wanted to send out a political message. In one of the themes of anger is fascism about the gang in the mountains theyre not met v. O. C. Theyre fascists versus they blackmail us without children they blackmail us with their husbands and our friends in them fight and thats whats most terrifying about dictators and fascism and they attack us using the things were most proud of i think what we think of as our identity thats what we love most of us believe and they turn us into accomplices thats how fascism operate and thats what i depicted in in custody sean intent and house but i didnt call it by its name because i thought it would be more time is this way 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 all good i thought it is probably because illustrating a painting have become more important to me again here is to get so sick sometimes i draw characters. And dont know who they are and then they pop up in my books one is that a new way of courting is not yes it is quite new at some point i realized oh man there is a new in caught book emerging out of this. Its called the color of revenge and its about the struggle between words and images which one is more powerful. Its not idea thats always fascinated me thats called and its found its way into encounters team what does it mean to write all written as action its a nice way to engage with these ideas. What is stronger the word or the image that question is also explored in pans 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 in focus 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. Can only a funk has said she would only write the book if she was allowed to retain the films horror. For the next and i said im not going to change anything in the story 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 in the mind everything here i am a push in the film and i wont play down the violence because its the truth and this is what violence looks like he doesnt have and to size it he doesnt trivialize over glorify evil deeds yet thats why i had my again no doubt tara. Indel totals 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 for its a monster rises from its laughter genie. Its 1st victims are the fairies that are supposed to accompany and protect a filling out. The family get is set to be the next victim. 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 thank. You. Cornelia focus says neither the film nor the book are intended for a specific age group. And she doesnt 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 got it very nicely couldnt do you know whats the difference between an author for children and an order for grownups as i said we know that whats the difference he said the authors were children love the audience or and i think theres Something Else assisting about the adult book about our time but we found sometimes theyre really ugly rivalries between authors for him ive never seen that in childrens books as on a there is no solidarity what its almost like a guilt theres a lot of love for the crown vic to bits of him and i think its wonderful and humaniform no boundaries thats 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 right but i can live with that helps and i have a kind of good. I can only a fun cause sometimes feels that fantasy is under rated as a genre. I think that there is still a lot of misunderstanding what people say oh its escapism and all that readers want to live in another world cups or thats upset because there is no other world to govern whatever we think. Even if its another planet its 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 thats going on a planet that speeding past a viable and there is an exploding sun above us somewhere so and theres 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 dont more one dimensional there are very one dimensional as id say we need to find a concept of reality thats a lot more multidimensional it especially at a time when were destroying pretty much everything thats not human and humane or 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 where everything belongs together if were to really comprehend reality his fantasy makes it easier to ask those Big Questions decide whats big and important whats evil about whats good comedy you can bring the dead back as go say way shakespeare did you can speak to all those aspects of existence that access stands on. Cornelia funke or often works on several projects at once. But these days her 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 ive always wanted to live in a village together with all my creative friends i have lots of friends who make animated movies or music or they write on the other many of my guests are friends the artists i know so 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 as i was. 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 her 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 its sometimes hard to find these days. And above all i love the friendliness and everyday life and its not insincere its very true and genuine. And ive come to love being in a country of immigrants and its 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 label and you never know what kind of life story a person might have to tell me eventually. I wouldnt want to miss out on all of that. 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 it was on america so whats good about america is of course that it has a very strong tradition of rebellion and not of a beauty and still thorson 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 its here and want to vent here i said immigration is good thats you now at last germany will get a bit more diverse to alert us to is that i could hear that one side got very quiet while the other got a very loud we have this polarization now all over the world we put it on the hot but there are all sorts of things you can do politically and at the moment im supporting lawyers that are trying to protect and help the children the Migrant Children from the lawyers who are trying to reach the children and support them a visit here through to the id rather be putting my money towards Environmental Protection but this is whats needed in this political situation im very active politically active thats 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 untie. Argumentative immigrants especially from latin america. Take the battle is now out in the ohio valley for that california is fighting it and thats why i still like living here. In autumn 2017 Cornelia Funk of followed her dream of life in the countryside and bought a farm near malibu its hurt not so little slice of heaven shes got sunshine and green all year round as long as the bush fires dont come too close. To the network. And best of all here away from the big city she finds peace and tranquility. It would ever return to germany night its been you know im not someone who goes back i mean im 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 i spent 45 years in one single country life and thats not all that inspiring i should have tried out a few more. And if i do i hope ill have the courage and thirst for adventure to try out something totally different once again