france. the increasing numbers of young people like her who are throwing their full support for macrons party in the upcoming parliamentary elections, could herald a paradigm shift for the country and unsettle the establishment. reporter: justine henry is exhausted but relieved that her efforts were worth it. for months, she campaigned day and night for macron's en marche movement. but there is no no time to rest. under its new name la republique en marche, the party now has to make significant gains in the legislative elections. >> we have to get an absolute majority. it's doable but it will be tight. we'll have to fight, but we're used to that and good at it. we don't do politics like the others do, we don't just sit around and wait till we get elected as if by right, without going out and coming into contact with people. we meet local people, we do things in a constructive and coherent manner according to our principles and our values and that's what works. reporter: but it's not been easy. justine henry told us that she'd fallen out with family members and friends because of her political ambitions. many could not understand why she would want to join a group of people who've fallen into disrepute because of corruption and mismanagement. >> i argued with my mother. she doesn't understand why i studied for 10 years without ever practising. there's been a lot of judging when i've made decisions that nobody understands. my friends said, why are you doing that, it's not you, i feel like i don't know you anymore. reporter: but henry stood her ground. she believes macron when he says he wants to support women in politics. but philosopher and women's rights activist geneviève fraisse says she is not impressed by the president elect. >> his program doesn't reflect equality. why should he be any different? there's absolutely no reason for that. reporter: but justine henry already sees a difference in macron's leadership style. she says that he proved during the campaign that he was willing to accept criticism from below. she also thinks that she has good chances of entering his inner circle. >> i think i've found a foothold -- otherwise they wouldn't have let me speak ahead of macron at his paris meeting when it was clear he'd be president. reporter: while she might have climbed the movement's ranks very easily, it will be much harder to get france's discontented front national voters on their side as well as those who are not on the far right but have their doubts about macron's project. >> it's a discussion i had with my mother who wasn't sure that she should vote for macron. she really considered voting for le pen. we talked about it openly. she didn't hesitate long but she did say she had thought about it. reporter: justine henry -- part of a new generation of french politicians marching france towards a new future. michelle: russia's annexation of the crimean peninsula unsettled other former members of the soviet union, particularly its neighbour latvia, which has a proportionally larger russian speaking population than ukraine. this has stirred tensions between older ethnic russians living in the capital, who tend to hold nationalistic views, and a younger, post-cold war generation that has turned away from moscow and towards the european union. and unlike their elders, these young people have embraced learning latvian and are integrating more freely into society. reporter: mara is a regular shopper at riga's central m. it's a meeting point for latvian and ethnic russian residents. she meets up with alexei in this fish restaurant. he's also a latvian citizen, but his mother tongue is russia. mara is a well known singer, aleksej is a photographer. and the two seem to understand each other very well in various ways. a>> we speak latvian with oned each other another.l in various i took the initiative, and aleksej was polite enough to stick with it. >> we young people can speak three or four languages. it's a must. 's completely normal. >> if i go into a store and i try to buy something and i'm not being understood when i speak in russian, i feel that is a situation that is wrong. reporter: and that's no rare occurence. mara lives on moscow street, and the street does indeed lead to moscow. she moved here 12 years ago nonetheless. now she lives as a latvian in maskatschka -- "little moscow". she also had her two children here. it's a neighborhood that doesn't really feel like part of the eu. mara loves the area, but acknowledges its less positive aspects. there are few jobs -- and drug-dealers on every other street corner. it's a world unto itself, where people watch russian television. hardly anyone speaks latvian, even though it's impossible to vote, get a passport or work for the government without the language. until the outbreak of the crimean conflict, latavian tv had no russian-language programming -- a gap exploited by moscow. now, state tv has a special new service catering to that audience. >> it's never to late to do something. we've waited 25 years in latvia to have russian language tv for our minority. we lost a lot of people to russian tv. reporter: in their attempt to compete with russian media, the russian language latvian broadcaster has found allies in riga's lovely art nouveau district. in 2014 the neighborhood became home to a segment of the russian intelligentsia -- twenty employees of russia's most successful internet portal, living in exile. the meduza website takes an in-depth look at russia everyday and offers an alternative to moscow's state propaganda. these young russians hope for a better time post-putin. they're used to finding their news for themselves on the internet. >> they don't watch television. that's why the propaganda machine isn't working with them. this is what right now the specialists, the guys in present administration felt, the television doesn't work with huge and very important and very active part of the society. reporter: so what can actually be done in the face of headlines proclaiming the demise of latvia, and other propganda? >> right now, russia has a much better propagandistic infrastructure than the rest of the country. this is the unpleasant truth. reporter: alexei the photographer has been avoiding propaganda for quite some time. he's part of a young generation that informs itself. and mara's song lyrics speak volumes. >> that's a part of my riga, she sings, a difficult riga. where new things are growing. and a riga with high hopes for the future -- a bridge between russia and europe. michelle: mara isn't alone in hoping riga becomes a bridge between russia and europe. this younger generation sees the future of their country within the european union and hopes to show a way for the different societies to come together. mino and his beloved dog luna spend their days foraging in the hills of northern italy for something more valuable than gold. s the rare, and highly prized white truffle. unlike it's black counterpart, it cannot be cultivated, and is found buried only in few places like the dense forests of alba. the demand for white truffles far outstrips the supply and as a result, a war between legal truffle collectors and unscrupulous fortune hunters has broken out. reporter: they work in the dark. truffle hunters, or trifulao, as they're called in the piedmont dialect, they are shy creatures, always on the move, with only their dog at their side. the search for this valuable fungus has something mystical about it, even today. >> when you find a truffle, it's an overpowering feeling. you break the earth with your own hands, and this incredibly intense smell wafts up. that's really overwhelming. it doesn't matter what size or shape the truffle is! reporter: mino's companion is luna, a cocker spaniel. the two are inseparable. reporter: northwest italy's piedmont region is renowned for its history, culture, excellent wines and, of course, its truffles. it's a veritable land of plenty. but things take a nasty turn here in the idyllic woodlands around alba. mino is still on the go even in the early hours of the morning when the woods are still shrouded in fog. he's angry about the so-called truffle wars. >> it's gotten so bad that dogs are being poisoned. eight dogs were poisoned within the space of three weeks in this region alone. that's incredibly painful for us. we've reached a point that was unthinkable for us until recently. this is no longer war. it's personal vindictiveness. but who's the target? reporter: alba's forestry police are trying to find out who's responsible. they patrol the region keeping a look-out for unlicensed truffle hunters. but it's not easy to cover so many square kilometers with just five men. >> this is the kind of area with lots of truffle hunters. dense woodland. the truffle hunters are very secretive. they often try to elude our patrols. this car definitely belongs to a truffle hunter. what else could he be doing here? we'll have to proceed on foot. reporter: deeper in the forest, they meet two trifulao on their way home. they say they haven't found very much. their papers are in order. they've paid their license fee. they, too, talk about a truffle war. >> i put on his muzzle just in case. it'd be dreadful, if anything happened to my dog. >> i don't care wether they've paid the license tax. but if they dig out the truffles when they're still green, that's the real competition. this has been going on for years. reporter: it's all about money, a lot of money. white truffles are worth their weight in gold. especially fine specimens can even cost two or three times as much. some people will go to extremes to get their hands on them. poisoned bait, ground glass mixed into minced meat, and even strychnine scattered in the woods. and it's not just dogs who suffer. >> here's a sheep. it probably ate some of the poisoned bait they scattered in the woods. and it came here to die. reporter: but mino is going to carry on. he learned the trade from his grandfather and can't imagine life without it. and his son is following in his footsteps. >> why is hunting truffles a passion? you have to know where to look and when. every plant has its own time. it's not like all of them suddenly grow all at once. so how do you acquire this knowledge? through experience. but if you suddenly decide at the age of 50 that you want to hunt truffles and make lots of money, and you scatter poison, so other people don't go there, then you've got it all wrong. then you're just an imbecile. reporter: mino and some of his colleagues are planning to offer courses on truffle hunting and the ethics of truffle hunting. maybe that will help. michelle: sandra moradi doesn't mind being one of only a handful of women in her male-dominated work environment, one that involves sharing everything from equipment, training regimes and even living quarters with male colleagues. she is one of the first women ever to be drafted into the norwegian military. norway has become the first country in europe to introduce the draft for women. our reporter met with sandra to find out if scandinavia's attitude to gender and society is as liberal as people say. >> stop! freeze! reporter: somewhere in the forest, the enemy is advancing. army recruit sandra moradi must act. >> hands over your head! drop your weapon! reporter: luckily, this was just a drill. sandra is training to defend her home country, norway. the 19-year-old is one of norway's first female military conscripts. having joined in summer, she's now stationed in the tundra, north of the arctic circle, 1600 kilometres from her home city of oslo. but she won't let herself get homesick. women in uniform are highly respected in norway, and her family supports what she does. >> everyone is proud of me. so, it's good to be here, when everyone's proud of me. >> they're not scared? >> my mum is scared of course. but none of my friends. >> your mum is scared? >> yeah. it's always like that. mum's always scared for their children. reporter: the first women enlisted in the norwegian army 40 years ago, but through choice. norway has now made military service compulsory for women, and they're treated no differently than men. >> it's nice, i guess. i've never experienced a problem with. i'm really happy that it works. and that it is the way it is. reporter: norway's army has only 18,000 soldiers. that's relatively small. but it's still difficult to find enough suitable recruits. that's why more and more women are being drafted. >> hey, do you need anything? no? ok, have a good shift! reporter: tensions are high back at the headquarters. they're performing a drill, the enemy is attacking. but the norwegians are putting up a strong defence. the russian border is nearby, which norway sees as a potential threat. they're concerned about president putin, and his rising opposition to the west. so drafting women is as much about gender equality as it is about reinforcing security. military service doesn't mean everyone will end up in the barracks. but all 18-year-old norwegians have to take the army's examination. the work requires motivation and commitment. and men and women can't mind living side in these confined spaces. >> this is my bed, i sleep here every day. here is my friend, it's a girl. and over here is like the boys. >> any problems with the boys? >> no, they're just like messy. you can see that at the floor. and there's, like, coke everywhere. and they don't clean up. you see that. that's the only problem. reporter: but every one out of five female soldiers has reported being verbally abused by male conscripts. some have even experienced physical harassment. though not inside these barracks, sandra was a little anxious when she first joined. >> it's not so many of us. but many of the boys. so we're more shy. we don't have so much to say when the boys are together because they make a man-camp. and then it's the girls. i think so. i was shy too, in the beginning. when i met those four boys i live with. reporter: the norwegian army has to accept this tension between the sexes. having female soldiers can be beneficial in certain countries. >> we had situations where we could not use men, male soldiers. we could use female soldiers to get access into the female part of the population in afghanistan. and that was an advantage for us. reporter: for decades, norway has been carrying out international operations. it sent troops to afghanistan, mali and sudan. the people of norway support these missions. >> i really want to do something for norway. make a change maybe. that's why. >> what kind of change? >> save the world i guess? i don't know. i like being here. it's hard, it's tough. i think it fits me. reporter: the army plans to send its female conscripts on future peacekeeping operations. sandra is ready and willing. the military is where she sees her future. michelle: in poland another woman is forging her own path but in a very different field. there's a famous line in fashion circles that says, one minute you're in, the next, you're out. which often means that anything old is not beautiful, not exciting, and certainly not in style. and as for models, many say their careers are over when they turn 30. but helena, who was model-scouted at the age of 82, is turning the adage and the fashion world on its head. reporter: at first glance, it looks like a typical ad campaign featuring beautiful, young women. but wait, she's also beautiful, but she's not young. to be exact, helena norowicz is 82 years old. and she's one of the most sought-after models in poland. fashion designer michal gilbert lach selected her. he designs fashions for celebrities -- and he created this dress specially for helena. it was a risky decision, but one that's paid off handsomely. >> the risk was worth it. we were worried. we didn't know what the reaction to the campaign would be. helena was also concerned about how she'd look, compared to a young top model. but the end result is so enchanting, delightful and surprising that we're all happy with the campaign. reporter: and this is helena norowicz, meeting with her friend eva. she has so much to tell her. though her career began so late and so suddenly, she's now swamped with offers. >> you look completely different here. reporter: but what's it like to pose alongside much younger colleagues? >> just once i thought, god, i used to look like that. but then i thought, actually they should be thinking, my god, one day i'm going to look like helena, so we're even. >> with younger models you see their ambition, not her kind of wisdom. >> right. they're spring. i'm the colourful autumn. reporter: and this music video shows that those in the autumn of their lives still have much to offer. but helena norowicz is really an actress, and has been one all her life. she's currently playing a countess in the play "chlopcy" or "the boys". it's about a rebellion in a seniors' home. sometimes the cast talks off-stage about aging, too. helena norowicz remains still and focused as her makeup is applied -- like a true professional. norowicz has also gone through hard times -- like when she was forced into retirement by the managers at her former theatre. for a decade no-one showed any interest in hiring her. then came the phone call which launched her second career -- at age 80. >> i look at it this way, i give third-agers hope that, even at an advanced age, you can still live the way you want to. reporter: she's living proof that someone in their 80's can be stylish and cool. >> recently, the trend towards plastic surgery and botox injections has led to people all looking much the same, like they're made of plastic. but fashion requires character -- people who stay true to themselves and are special somehow. reporter: she's physically fit, too. but she's not happy with this shot. the light is wrong, so she changes position. and then we see what else 82-year-old helena norowicz can do. michelle: helena, you are a woman after my own heart. i would like to be that fit now, much less than at 82! that's it for today. thank you for watching. if you'd like to find out more about any of today's stories, send me a tweet or visit our facebook page, dw stories. for now, it's goodbye from me and the whole team! ♪ steves: the city of bilbao has recently been transformed from a gritty steel town to a happening cultural center like no other spanish city. entire sectors of the industrial city's long-depressed port have been cleared away to allow for new construction. this bridge is part of what's now a delightfully people-friendly riverfront. bilbao's old town is well worth a stroll. you'll find tall buildings and narrow lanes lined with thriving shops and tapas bars. a modern light rail line conveniently laces the old town with points along the river, to the site which spearheaded bilbao's urban renaissance -- the guggenheim museum. while its contemporary art collection is impressive, it's the building, designed by frank gehry and opened in 1997, that's created a stir in the world of architecture and put bilbao on the traveler's map. gehry's groundbreaking design helped set a new standard for architecture. using cutting-edge technologies, unusual materials, and daring forms, he created a piece of architectural sculpture that smoothly integrates with its environment. with the bridges, pedestrian promenade, and art all complementing the building, it's an engaging ensemble. gehry was inspired by a variety of visions. for instance, to him, the building's multiple forms jostle like a loose crate of bottles. guarding the main entrance is jeff koons' towering west highland terrier, made of 60,000 living plants, which blossom in a carefully planned visual concert. a joyful structure, it takes viewers back to their childhood. puppy, as it's known to locals, was meant to be temporary, but the people of bilbao fell in love with puppy, so they bought it. stepping inside, you naturally flow to the museum's atrium, which acts as the heart of the building, pumping visitors in and out of various rooms on three levels. the glass and limestone panels overlap each other, like fish scales. each is unique, designed by a computer. joyful as the building is, the art it holds is even more fun. while the museum's audio guides give meaning to the abstract art, my hunch is that the artists are entirely happy for us to simply wander, interact, and play with their creations. this is art that welcomes you in. bilbao's guggenheim museum makes you smile. [ laughing ] - [voiceover] up nexext music city roots live from the factory. in this episode a community celebrates nashville artist tommy womack with daddy, webb wilder and jason & the scorchers. coming up right after this. - [voiceover] national broadcast of music city roots is made possible by acceptance auto insurance based in nashville tennessee. acceptance offers personal automobile coverage from coast to coast, more information available at acceptance.com. you your terms accepted. - [voiceover] franklin tennessee. inspired music, local flavor, on the edge of nashville. visit frankline.com. - [voiceover] nissan, proud sponsor of art and culture in our home state of tennessee. nissan, innovation that excites. more information is available at nissanusa.com. - [voiceover] vietti chili, made locally in music city

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