美国国家公共电台 NPR In 'Capernaum,' The Chaos Of Lebanon From A Homeless Child's Perspective

In 'Capernaum,' The Chaos¹ Of Lebanon From A Homeless Child's Perspective

LULU GARCIA-NAVARRO, HOST:

OK. This is the time of year when film critics announce their best of lists. Among the Hollywood titles, there is one film from the Middle East that reviewers are praising. It's called "Capernaum," and it's already won the Jury Prize at this year's Cannes Film Festival. It tells the story of homeless children in Beirut, Lebanon. And it opens in the United States this week. NPR's Bilal Qureshi reports.

BILAL QURESHI, BYLINE²: In one of the first scenes in "Capernaum," the camera flies above Beirut's slums.

(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)

QURESHI: There's no sight of the Mediterranean³ or the glamor⁴ of the so-called Paris of the Middle East. This is the other Beirut, as film critic Nana Asfour describes.

NANA ASFOUR: You're seeing dilapidated buildings, children running around, playing with pieces of metals and just whatever they could find on the street, not actual toys. You know, they're trying to have fun within this environment.

(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)

QURESHI: The images on screen are a reflection of Beirut as it is today - a condition captured in the film's title.

NADINE LABAKI: Capernaum in French is used usually in French literature to signify chaos, to signify hell, disorder⁵.

QURESHI: That's Lebanese filmmaker Nadine Labaki. In recent years, Lebanon has taken in more than a million refugees fleeing the war in neighboring Syria. Labaki says the sight of hundreds of children begging on the streets has become the new normal. And she remembers the night she decided⁶ she had to do something.

LABAKI: I was coming back from a party at 1 o'clock in the morning. And I see a mother with her child begging. He was almost like 2, and he was dozing⁷ off. And he couldn't sleep. And for me, it was this sight of this kid that doesn't want anything but to sleep. And we were not giving him the right to sleep. And it struck me. Everything that this kid is going to know for the next two, three years is this half a meter sidewalk. It's his only playground.

QURESHI: Labaki was pregnant at the time.

LABAKI: How come we got to that point? How do we allow for such injustice⁸ to happen to the most fragile human beings in our society?

QURESHI: The answers came with years of research, spending time with the families living that reality. Nadine Labaki's husband Khaled Mouzanar is the film's producer and composer.

KHALED MOUZANAR: We spent four years with all these people in the poorest and darkest places of Beirut, where all these people end up after going on the streets of rich neighborhoods where they are beggars. They go back to these places where they live. And it is close to hell.

QURESHI: His wife says she wanted to show that hell from a child's point of view, so she interviewed hundreds of kids living on the streets.

LABAKI: I used to make it a point at the end of the conversation to ask them, are you happy to be alive? And most of the times, the answer was, no. They just see themselves as insects, as parasites⁹. Some of them use those words. I'm just an insect. I don't exist. I'm invisible. So I wanted to translate this anger.

QURESHI: And that's translated on screen in the form of a 12-year-old boy named Zain as he takes the stand in a courtroom.

(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "CAPERNAUM")

ZAIN AL RAFEEA: (As Zane, speaking Arabic).

ELIAS KHOURY: (As judge, speaking Arabic).

AL RAFEEA: (As Zane, speaking Arabic).

QURESHI: He tells the judge he is suing his parents for the crime of bringing him into the world.

LABAKI: And by suing his parents, he's also suing a whole system, a whole society that is not allowing him to have his basic rights.

QURESHI: The film then goes back in time to show how hunger and abuse drove Zain into that courtroom. For most of its running time, "Capernaum" feels more like a documentary. That's because so much of it is not fiction.

LABAKI: There's no extras in the film. You know, we come to a place. We shoot with everything in it - with the people. We shot in the prisons with the prisoners. These are real prisons. The apartments are real apartments. The drawings on the walls are drawings made by kids who lived in these apartments, so the rule was to intervene the least possible in order to be able to tell the truth.

QURESHI: In one of the film's most powerful scenes, Zain's beloved sister is sold into marriage. And as she's taken away on a motorcycle, the young actor runs after her in tears.

(SOUNDBITE OF CHILDREN CRYING)

LABAKI: He went around the block going after the motorcycle five tours around the block. He wouldn't stop running, and the cameras would not stop running behind him. Everybody, the whole crew was running behind him because we are at his service. He decided to run, and we ran. And it was the only way for me to achieve what we achieved.

QURESHI: Nadine Labaki is already one of the most celebrated¹⁰ filmmakers in the Middle East. She says movies were her escape as a child trapped at home during the Lebanese Civil War. Her first film was a lighthearted, feminist¹¹ comedy called "Caramel." It was an international hit. "Capernaum" is a departure for the director with an unapologetically activist¹² agenda. But film critic Nana Asfour says it succeeds because it is, first and foremost, a great piece of filmmaking.

ASFOUR: The cinematography's great. The editing is fantastic. The acting¹³ is incredible - that she coaxed¹⁴ such amazing performances out of these non-actors.

QURESHI: But "Capernaum" also has its critics. Some reviewers have called it poverty porn - art that exploits the suffering of its subjects for accolades¹⁵. When I asked her, Nadine Labaki says she doesn't care.

LABAKI: When people use the word porn poverty and all that, I don't even know what it means. But I cannot do anything towards people who just decide to be cynical¹⁶ towards me wanting to tell a story just because I haven't lived. OK. I haven't lived their lives. Of course I haven't lived their lives, but somebody needs to tell that story somehow.

QURESHI: Nadine Labaki's film version of that story is two hours long. But as she says, the real story will be playing on the streets of Beirut for generations to come. Bilal Qureshi, NPR News.

(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)

1 chaos   

n.混乱，无秩序

参考例句：

• After the failure of electricity supply the city was in chaos.停电后，城市一片混乱。
• The typhoon left chaos behind it.台风后一片混乱。

2 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

3 Mediterranean   

adj.地中海的；地中海沿岸的

参考例句：

• The houses are Mediterranean in character.这些房子都属地中海风格。
• Gibraltar is the key to the Mediterranean.直布罗陀是地中海的要冲。

4 glamor   

n.魅力，吸引力

参考例句：

• His performance fully displayed the infinite glamor of Chinese dance.他的表演充分展示了中华舞蹈的无穷魅力。
• The glamor of the East was brought to international prominence by the Russion national school.俄罗斯民族学派使东方的魅力产生了国际性的影响。

5 disorder   

n.紊乱，混乱；骚动，骚乱；疾病，失调

参考例句：

• When returning back,he discovered the room to be in disorder.回家后，他发现屋子里乱七八糟。
• It contained a vast number of letters in great disorder.里面七零八落地装着许多信件。

6 decided   

adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的

参考例句：

• This gave them a decided advantage over their opponents.这使他们比对手具有明显的优势。
• There is a decided difference between British and Chinese way of greeting.英国人和中国人打招呼的方式有很明显的区别。

7 dozing   

v.打瞌睡,假寐 n.瞌睡

参考例句：

• The economy shows no signs of faltering. 经济没有衰退的迹象。
• He never falters in his determination. 他的决心从不动摇。

8 injustice   

n.非正义，不公正，不公平，侵犯（别人的）权利

参考例句：

• They complained of injustice in the way they had been treated.他们抱怨受到不公平的对待。
• All his life he has been struggling against injustice.他一生都在与不公正现象作斗争。

9 parasites   

寄生物( parasite的名词复数 )； 靠他人为生的人； 诸虫

参考例句：

• These symptoms may be referable to virus infection rather than parasites. 这些症状也许是由病毒感染引起的，而与寄生虫无关。
• Kangaroos harbor a vast range of parasites. 袋鼠身上有各种各样的寄生虫。

10 celebrated   

adj.有名的，声誉卓著的

参考例句：

• He was soon one of the most celebrated young painters in England.不久他就成了英格兰最负盛名的年轻画家之一。
• The celebrated violinist was mobbed by the audience.观众团团围住了这位著名的小提琴演奏家。

11 feminist   

adj.主张男女平等的，女权主义的

参考例句：

• She followed the feminist movement.她支持女权运动。
• From then on,feminist studies on literature boomed.从那时起，男女平等受教育的现象开始迅速兴起。

12 activist   

n.活动分子，积极分子

参考例句：

• He's been a trade union activist for many years.多年来他一直是工会的积极分子。
• He is a social activist in our factory.他是我厂的社会活动积极分子。

13 acting   

n.演戏，行为，假装；adj.代理的，临时的，演出用的

参考例句：

• Ignore her,she's just acting.别理她，她只是假装的。
• During the seventies,her acting career was in eclipse.在七十年代，她的表演生涯黯然失色。

14 coaxed   

v.哄，用好话劝说( coax的过去式和过去分词 )；巧言骗取；哄劝，劝诱

参考例句：

• She coaxed the horse into coming a little closer. 她哄着那匹马让它再靠近了一点。
• I coaxed my sister into taking me to the theatre. 我用好话哄姐姐带我去看戏。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》

15 accolades   

n.（连结几行谱表的）连谱号( accolade的名词复数 )；嘉奖；（窗、门上方的）桃尖拱形线脚；册封爵士的仪式（用剑面在肩上轻拍一下）

参考例句：

• Unlike other accolades for literature which tend to value style or experimentation. 有别于其他偏重风格活实验性的文学奖项。 来自互联网
• Build your trophy room while amassing awards and accolades. 建立您的奖杯积累奖项和荣誉。 来自互联网

16 cynical   

adj.(对人性或动机)怀疑的，不信世道向善的

参考例句：

• The enormous difficulty makes him cynical about the feasibility of the idea.由于困难很大，他对这个主意是否可行持怀疑态度。
• He was cynical that any good could come of democracy.他不相信民主会带来什么好处。