Multimedia Reading "Rose + Robert. Love in Times of War"

Edda Buchspieß and Jochen Voit present their graphic novel in a multimedia reading.

Comic artist Lilya befriends her elderly neighbor Robert, who tells her about his first love Rose - a romance from 1970s East Germany in the shadow of the Iron Curtain. Fascinated, Lilya begins to draw: about the nonconformist Rose, who also loved drawing, and about Robert, who protected her when a West German smuggler put her in mortal danger. But soon Lilya's doubts grow. Another man offers a completely different version: Rose wanted to leave East Germany and paid dearly for her will to freedom. The love story becomes a political thriller, Lilya's research becomes a parable about old and newly reignited East-West conflicts.

Artist Lilya Matveeva (born 1988 in Krasnoyarsk, Soviet Union) studied illustration at the British High School of Art and Design in Moscow, worked as a freelancer for Transparency International and Memorial, among others, and has lived in Berlin since her escape from Moscow in 2022. Screenwriter Jochen Voit (born 1972 in Nuremberg) studied history and communication sciences in Munich, worked as a music journalist and comic screenwriter, and has directed the Andreasstraße Memorial and Education Center in Erfurt since 2012.

The event is a contribution to the Friedrichshafener Tage der Demokratie, in cooperation with the Schulmuseum Friedrichshafen and Medienhaus am See. Duration: approximately 1 hour 15 minutes.