a sweet and tragic love story begins. it's now being staged by the artistic director of berlin barry kosky when you take a piece that's completely unknown it's it's always much easier to do a production because the audience and the artists and the critics they don't know it so it's the complete opposite because it's one of the top three most played in five time the piece drips with nostalgia and that piece drips with expectation. and kosky satisfies those expectations his puccini is quite traditional. the cooper show is one of berlin's big three opera houses because he has been at the helm for ten years he transformed the rather conventional commercial and put it on the world map in twenty fourteen the ultimate accolade the international opera award. the. inventive staging of mozart's the magic flute first got the world's attention . the director went on to rediscover berlin's roaring twenty's. and he brought leonard bernstein west side story to the coma. six feet. two day. without cost is almost unthinkable. in his latest production desire and demise are bedfellows as is so often the case with put cine. in the d.n.a. of all great operas the dealing with the subjects the erotic and and death of a walk hand in hand was. so it's inevitable that in lebanon and mimi must die in the most dramatic way it's the female character is minnie and who is etta who set the tone here with the genie there is no question he's on the side of women we've tried to present to me that's not this do move fragile little flower she's just this young girl. kosky needs puccini. and once again. it's grand opera. that is definitely an opera house with a difference now moving of the world of literature if you're not sure what book to read next d w. one hundred ounces in fact my called david leavitt's is the prisons are of all series one hundred german must reads david welcome now we'll be featuring a different book from the list every week this must have been closer reading madness it was you know i was i was pinching myself thinking i've got the best job ever can this be real on the one hand and on the other hand i was worried that i was going to go permanently cross eyed. literature team and i read tens of thousands of pages for this project and we came up with a reading list that could keep the average reader busy for maybe a few decades but don't let that intimidate you because we made it very easy to pick and choose with one hundred short videos each about a different book all the books are translated into english and there's something here for everyone whether you're new to german lit or you're an expert already we've got page turners for your next trip to the beach we've got literary heavyweights the whole spectrum of german history two world wars the berlin wall we've got crime novels sayf i dance a polar bears it is all there. one of the books on the list is. the plant's a classic which takes place just down the road from here before we look at it is there anything we need to know well this is an absolute classic and it's a it's a first hand view at berlin of the one nine hundred twenty s. this very wild period right before the nazis take power this is a period of time actually that still fascinates filmmakers and writers today that may be one of the reasons that it's one of our top most feared videos on social media so far ok ok so let's have a look. hardly anywhere in berlin has seen as much transformation as the area around i think summed up lights today it's a living monuments of the cold grey architecture of communist east germany but before world war two it was filled with narrow crowded streets and the roaring one nine hundred twenty s. it was a center of night life riddled with crime. berlin alexandr plots but i do believe it is the story of an ex convicts named france be brought called who's just served time for beating his girlfriend to death not a great guy when he gets out of prison berlin is no longer the city he once knew it's the one nine hundred twenty seven his neighborhood has turned into a frenzied cesspool of parties and sick how's it got to keep his nose clean in a place like that. the book is a tour through rowdy bars and dance halls like this one fashions from the house where the author himself was known to have a good time now keeps getting into a brawl as he keeps getting knocked down over and over and so finally he gets some sense knocked into much misfortune comes out walking alone if there are several of you that is already better you have to get used to listening to other people because what others say concerns me when i see who i am and what i can take on author i've played to being worked as a neurologist so he had some pretty good insight into the darker sides of humanity his nine hundred twenty nine novel paints berlin as the home of crooks pimps and prostitutes berlin alexandre plots was a huge success but being jewish and a socialist had to flee germany for his life when the nazis took over after world war two he came back to germany from the us but he couldn't stand it so he left again this time for france berlin alexandre pato has been turned into some pretty good movies but none of them. matches the book. and. i reckon you have got the. this is this project is the first of its kind it's a chance for readers all over the world to get german language or says now why should we be reading german the literature in translation gives a deep insight into places that we personally may never go to people we may or may never get to meet and germany in particular isn't all the headlines today german history people see in hollywood movies they read about it from now on german authors but you're not going to get to really know these topics until you see them from an insider's perspective so why not go straight to the source i have to say that i've been really it's been really wonderful to see the global interest in german literature my colleagues have been accused of both and i got to meet with readers in india recently she hosts the german versions of the videos and the readers we met at our presentations in delhi told us they actually thought the books on our list were relevant to their own country to their own lives how amazing is that but you know that's what good literature does local in scope but it's human enough to resonate with the whole world so now we're looking forward to taking this project to book fairs in london and san francisco and in taipei and seeing how people there react it's been really refreshing so far to see how excited people still are about books very briefly have you got a favorite. do i do but will have to show it another week blood brothers buy a house now also takes place in berlin in the one nine hundred twenty s. it's rough when i decide it will take a david thank you and we'll be looking at a classic every week as david said culture now all on sunday night the screen actors guild awards were held in los angeles and it's continuing to be a highly unpredictable. world season is the big winner this time was black with the top prize of outstanding performance by. the movie. star went to remy malik for bahamian rhapsody. i start trysts was close to the amazing clothes for fantastic performance in the one. and nothing incident before a star is born which should lead the way with four nominations so how important of these awards to science. which only act as we hostile film scott rocks for that and also his favorites for the oscars sag award doesn't guarantee an oscar but suppose close as you can get because you see the group the votes for the oscars the academy the largest voting bloc within the academy are actors so if they pick a sag winner it tends to go on to win the oscars and you can see last year that was the case all four of the actors who won last year one oscar last year want to sag before for the same role you had frances mcdormand and sam rockwell binny winning best actress and best supporting actor for their roles in three billboards i side was there but what we still don't know is who's going to win the oscars this year and if i had to place a bet i'd go with a film i've got ten nominations of all the cones roma black and white spanish language film from mexico that recreates the director's childhood in the one nine hundred seventy s. mexico city. there's another black and white for language film over i think could have a chance at the oscars it's called cold war it's a polish movie from the director who won an oscar a couple of years ago with eva for my money this is maybe even a little bit better than roma it's a beautiful. story told over a couple of decades crossing the borders of the cold war. with. interesting tips from scotland to black and white movies not really mainstream anyway that's it for this first edition of ops and culture that forget to check out all websites at d.f.w. dot com slash culture and hopefully join us again for the next edition we leave you with pictures from like colma show. that perfectly read laddie but is ready in the junkyard in germany for a million diesel vehicles could be banned from the roads because they make too much toxic in atlanta and nitrogen dioxide. but do the admission limits really have a scientific basis and how reliable and quality data. the diesel disaster. close up in thirty minutes w. . sucks up. the music so long gets enough tastes. nice curves with because boeing stephanie stole. the curtain checks with musicians from around the world to come up other late. night groups starts feb second on t.w. . serial killers tango susan. coughlin to robert gangs. and ugly and funny prison feature of life in the one nine hundred twenty s. berlin fatalist weekly date find most of the monster connected with the explain such just body parts something like playing script as the german capital in a chokehold the police force came to see a polish because honestly on top of a man a child and disappearing brando takes his desk such crime scenes and time is a shortfall that mishmash display most don't reckon with him detective superintendent const cannot. revolutionize his feelings of procedures and establishes an extensive record system displaying the foundations for modern police work just want to deny janet's was doing back then was basically the same as today's culture minus an attempt the flip metropolis of crime. starts january twenty ninth six on t w. today denmark started building a fence along its border with germany copenhagen hopes the seventy kilometer metal construction will. the spread of african swine fever which is transmitted by wild boar the construction has attracted controversy for environmentalists and political reasons. venezuela's self-proclaimed interim president one boy though has called for fresh anti-government protests this week he has also offered the military.