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Culture Stories
Art
 An
East German Retrospective
As a major retrospective of East
German art opens in Berlin, El
País's Ciro Krauthausen
asks whether it was possible to
creat real art under the totalitarian
regime of the German Democratic
Republic.
Chile's
Surrealist
Chilean surrealist painter Roberto
Matta, ranked as among the 20th
century's best, died recently. World
Press Review associate editor Rachel
S. Taylor surveys his life and work.
A
Wonder, Reborn
Before it was plundered by the Wehrmacht
during the Second World War, the
legendary Amber Room at Catherine’s
Palace was often called the eighth
wonder of the world. A copy of the
room is due to open to the public
in May 2003. Ulrike
Knöfel investigates for Hamburg's
Der Spiegel.
Eternal
Images
At the height of her career, French
photographer Denise Colomb took
portraits of Picasso, Calder, Chagall,
and Braque. As she celebrates her
100th birthday, her nephew Albert
turns the tables and exhibits pictures
of this irreverent image-maker,
Paris's Le Figaro reports.
The
Arts in a Time of Crisis
What
is the place of the arts after September
11? Three visual artists tell Le
Monde's Michel Guerrin of their
reactions following the attacks.
Books
 Sept.
11 The Novel: Possible or Not?
Le Nouvel Observateur's Bernard
Géniès interviews
French authors Frédéric
Beigbeder and Luc Lang about their
new novels, both of which have Sept.
11 as a central theme.
Jesuits
Take On Corruption
A
new book published by Jesuits in
the Philippines aims to address
the issue of why corruption is endemic
in Filipino society. Alfred A. Araya
Jr. reports for Manila's CyberDyaryo.
Black
Humor in Dark Times
Abdalla F. Hassan profiles Egyptian
novelist Sonallah Ibrahim, a former
political prisoner whose provocative
novels have broken new ground in
contemporary Arabic literature.
Adventures
in Stasiland
Australian author Anna Funder talks
to World Press Review associate
editor Sarah Coleman about her book
Stasiland: Stories from Behind
the Berlin Wall, which describes
how it felt to live in "the
most perfected surveillance state
of all time."
Interview:
Jaume Vallcorba
Spanish publisher Jaume Vallcorba
has championed everything from medieval
poetry to the work of last year's
Nobel Prize winner. In an interview
with WPR correspondent Carmen
Font, he explains why literary publishing
still matters in a media-saturated
world.
Interview:
Oz Shelach
World
Press Review associate editor
Sarah Coleman interviews Israeli
writer Oz Shelach about his work,
Israeli politics, and his hopes
for the future of the Middle East.
Nobel
Prize Laureate Imre Kertész
Die Zeit's Iris Radisch records
an intimate and wide-ranging coversation
with Imre Kertész, the first Hungarian
to win the Nobel Prize in literature.
Yvonne
Vera: Breaking the Silence
38-year-old
Zimbabwean writer Yvonne Vera is
challenging taboos with her novels
and introducing the continent’s
public discourse to a new voice—the
voice of its women. Eugene Soros
reports from Harare.
Amitav
Ghosh: Writing Through Turmoil
Sheela Reddy, writing for the independent
New Delhi magazine Outlook,
interviews acclaimed Indian writer
Amitav Ghosh about the intersection
of political violence and literature.
Entrepreneurism
in a Cold Climate
In Siberia Bound: Chasing the
American Dream on Russia's Wild
Frontier, Alexander Blakely
describes how he left the material
comforts of the United States to
promote capitalism in communist
Siberia. World Press Review
interviewed him about his experiences.
Russian
Literary Salons
Two very different, but equally
controversial Russian writers are
facing criminal charges, bringing
up the question of whether the literary
procress and criminal trials go
hand in hand, writes Ilya Milstein
in Moscow's Novoye Vremya.
Weaving
History
In The Carpet Wars, Christopher
Kremmer follows ancient trade routes
to write about people and politics
in Afghanistan, Iran, Iraq, Pakistan,
and India. "If you read no
other nonfiction book post-Sept.
11, don’t miss this one,"
writes Morag Fraser of Melbourne's
The Age.
Film
Silver
Screen Storyteller
Actress, screenwriter, and director
Aparna Sen has been a celebrated
member of India’s cinema industry
for four decades. Her acclaimed
new film, Mr. and Mrs. Iyer,
is a love story that tackles the
issue of religious violence in India.
Acting
Out of Conviction
As antiwar sentiment mounts in Spain,
the country's top artists, film
stars, and directors have been staging
colorful protests of their own.
Mark Brown reports on a growing
headache for the Aznar administration.
The
Revolution Will Be Filmed
British director Ken Loach tells
The New Zealand Listener's
Philip Matthews about his latest
film, The Navigators, which
examines the mid-1990s privatization
of Britain's railway system and
the destruction of the railway culture
that went along with it.
Where
is Ten Going?
Acclaimed Iranian director Abbas
Kiarostami was unable to attend
a screening of his film Ten
at the New York Film Festival after
he was denied an entry visa. Libération's
Didier Peron interviews him about
the movie
Eleven
Filmmakers Deal With Sept. 11 Shockwaves
Le Monde reports on a commemorative
film produced by 11 filmmakers from
around the world, each producing
a short film 11 minutes, nine seconds,
and one frame long.
Hiroshima,
Mon Taboo
A new Japanese movie, Nobuhiro
Suwa's H Story, breaks a
traditional Japanese silence about
the bombing of Hiroshima, using
Alain Resnais' famous Hiroshima,
Mon Amour as its template. Richard
Werly of Paris's Libération
offers an assessment.
Vlastimil
Brodsky, A
Master of Czech Film
When he took his own life on April
19, 2002, veteran Czech film actor
Vlastimil Brodsky was mourned equally
by moviegoers in the Czech Republic
and Slovakia, the two countries
into which his homeland split in
1993. World Press Review
senior editor Andrew Yurkovsky looks
back on his career.
Tahmineh
Milani: Filmmaker on Trial
Feminist Iranian
filmmaker Tahmineh Milani faces
prosecution for her latest film,
The Hidden Half. World Press
Review associate editor Tekla
Syzmanski takes a look at the career
of this outspoken artist.
Music
Song
of Zimbabwe
For over two decades, Oliver Mtukudzi's
songs have guided Zimbabweans through
good times and bad. These days,
his message is more important than
ever. World Press Review's
Meron Tesfa Michael interviews Zimbabwe's
pop icon.
'Shariahphrenia'
Reigns in Northern Nigeria
Jean-Christophe Servant reports
on the effects the imposition of
a puritanical brand of Shariah law
is having on northern Nigeria's
traditionally lively music scene.
Kwaito,
Dagga, 'Edutainment," and the
Generation Gap in South Africa
Jean-Christophe
Servant looks at the culture of
South Africa's first post-apartheid
generation and finds the imprint
of new struggles.
Salif
Keita's Acoustical Manifesto
In his latest album, Moffou,
African musical legend Salif Keita
has returned to his roots. Martine
Lachaud of L’Express
offers a review.
Stand
Up, Africa!
A new generation
of African musicians is taking a
turn at political militancy through
music. Gilles Médioni of
Paris's L’Express looks
at the careers of Femi Kuti, Tiken
Jah Fakoly, and Angélique
Kidjo.
Theater
Dancing
for Peace
For ten years, the Ibdaa Dance Troupe
has offered Palestinian teenagers
a way to express their feelings
through dance. Dalia Fahmy caught
up with the company during its recent
U.S. tour.
Nord-Ost:
The First Week of a New Life
Yekaterina Kretova, writing for
Novye Izvestiya, reports
on the revival of the musical Nord-Ost
at the site of the Moscow theater
siege.
Theater
of Peace
The Lysistrata Project, which began
as a play reading by two actresses,
has turned into a global day of
theater to protest war in Iraq.
World Press Review associate
editor Sarah Coleman reports on
the March 3 event.
Female
Parts
Eve
Ensler's pioneering
play The Vagina Monologues
has become a worldwide phenomenon
in the last 5 years. But as it travels
the globe, the play is garnering
criticism as well as praise.
World
Press Review contributing editor
Sarah Coleman offers an assessment.
Hitler
for Children
Is the 2001 Broadway
mega-hit The Producers an
innocent delight, or do its values
reveal the shallowness of contemporary
culture? Peruvian novelist
Mario
Vargas Llosa analyzes the show for
Madrid's El Pais.
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