VOA标准英语2014--'Fishing Without Nets' a Dramatic Story of Somali Piracy

 

'Fishing Without Nets' a Dramatic Story of Somali Piracy¹

NEW YORK— 

It’s a familiar premise² in Hollywood film: a good man in need of money is talked into participating in a crime against his better judgment³. But in Fishing Without Nets, by first-time director Cutter Hodierne, an American, the protagonist⁴ is a poor Somali, and his crime is piracy.

Abdi, played by Abdikani Muktar, is a fisherman off the coast of Somalia, where pollution from foreign ships has ruined the catch. Desperate to support his wife and young son, Abdi is persuaded by a friend to help a group of pirates. They seize a French oil tanker⁵ and take the international crew hostage, hoping to extract a large ransom⁶. But it’s an old ship, the hold is empty, and the ship’s owners are in no hurry to make a deal.

Hodierne, who is from California, said he began thinking about making the film in 2008, when he was 22 and read news accounts of Somali piracy in the Indian Ocean.

“I kind of wanted to make the big, all-encompassing film of piracy, and tell the story from every angle,” Hodierne said, “but the angle I kept coming back to, that really fascinated me the most, was the story of the pirates. I just was so intrigued⁷ by what would lead somebody to that point of doing something so desperate, and also so kind of audacious.”

He said he didn’t worry that he’d be able to make a believable film in a language he didn’t know, set in a culture he didn’t belong to. “It was just passion that drove me to do it, and I said there’s a lot I need to learn here, and so I just kind of tapped everybody that I could in my research process. I just knew that if I followed my curiosity, I would come across some interesting stuff.”

In 2010, Hodierne and his producing partners, Raphael Swann and John Hibey, also a co-writer, went to Mombasa, Kenya to make a short version of the film. They found their cast among Somali refugees living in the city: day laborers⁸, fishermen, truck drivers. None had ever acted before.

“We would set up these informal auditions¹⁰ in restaurants and just like hangouts where Somalis would sit around and chew khat and drink tea, and we would audition⁹ people there, using a little video camera, not unlike how people in America cast short films with their friends,” Hodierne said. “We just kind of went out and made a new set of friends.”

When the short won a Sundance Film Festival grand jury prize, Vice¹¹ Media stepped in with $2 million to fund a feature-length version. Hodierne shot it with many of the same Somali non-actors, again improvising¹² the dialogue. Using a translator, Hodierne told the cast only the basics of what should happen in each scene.

“So they knew what was going to happen within a scene, and then they would improvise¹³ all the dialogue, so that it was in their voice,” Hodierne said. “And they were amazing at that. They add so much to it that I couldn’t have written on a page, so I consider them sort of co-writers of the movie.”

The story tracks Abdi’s fear for his family: He has used his last money to pay smugglers to get his wife and child into Yemen, where he hopes to join them, if only he can get his share of the ransom money. But as Abdi grows close to one of the hostages, a Frenchman treated brutally¹⁴ by other pirates, he’s increasingly troubled by his conscience. And the smugglers who are holding his wife and child are demanding more money.

Hodierne likes the description of Fishing Without Nets as an art house action film, and the unlikely combination of suspense¹⁵ and reflectiveness fits. “Powerful, deliberate and absolutely beautiful,” one critic described it. After limited theatrical¹⁶ release in the U.S., it will be released on video-on-demand. Hodierne also plans at least one screening in Mombasa for the cast and other Somalis in the city.

1 piracy   

n.海盗行为，剽窃，著作权侵害

参考例句：

• The government has already adopted effective measures against piracy.政府已采取有效措施惩治盗版行为。
• They made the place a notorious centre of piracy.他们把这地方变成了臭名昭著的海盗中心。

2 premise   

n.前提；v.提论，预述

参考例句：

• Let me premise my argument with a bit of history.让我引述一些史实作为我立论的前提。
• We can deduce a conclusion from the premise.我们可以从这个前提推出结论。

3 judgment   

n.审判；判断力，识别力，看法，意见

参考例句：

• The chairman flatters himself on his judgment of people.主席自认为他审视人比别人高明。
• He's a man of excellent judgment.他眼力过人。

4 protagonist   

n.(思想观念的)倡导者；主角，主人公

参考例句：

• The protagonist reforms in the end and avoids his proper punishment.戏剧主角最后改过自新并避免了他应受的惩罚。
• He is the model for the protagonist in the play.剧本中的主人公就是以他为模特儿创作的！

5 tanker   

n.油轮

参考例句：

• The tanker took on 200,000 barrels of crude oil.油轮装载了二十万桶原油。
• Heavy seas had pounded the tanker into three parts.汹涌的巨浪把油轮撞成三载。

6 ransom   

n.赎金，赎身；v.赎回，解救

参考例句：

• We'd better arrange the ransom right away.我们最好马上把索取赎金的事安排好。
• The kidnappers exacted a ransom of 10000 from the family.绑架者向这家人家勒索10000英镑的赎金。

7 intrigued   

adj.好奇的，被迷住了的v.搞阴谋诡计(intrigue的过去式)；激起…的兴趣或好奇心；“intrigue”的过去式和过去分词

参考例句：

• You've really intrigued me—tell me more! 你说的真有意思—再给我讲一些吧！
• He was intrigued by her story. 他被她的故事迷住了。

8 laborers   

n.体力劳动者，工人( laborer的名词复数 )；（熟练工人的）辅助工

参考例句：

• Laborers were trained to handle 50-ton compactors and giant cranes. 工人们接受操作五十吨压土机和巨型起重机的训练。 来自《现代英汉综合大词典》
• Wage-labour rests exclusively on competition between the laborers. 雇佣劳动完全是建立在工人的自相竞争之上的。 来自英汉非文学 - 共产党宣言

9 audition   

n.(对志愿艺人等的)面试(指试读、试唱等)

参考例句：

• I'm going to the audition but I don't expect I'll get a part.我去试音，可并不指望会给我个角色演出。
• At first,they said he was too young,but later they called him for an audition.起初，他们说他太小，但后来他们叫他去试听。

10 auditions   

n.（对拟做演员、歌手、乐师等人的）试听，试音( audition的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Find modeling auditions, casting calls& acting auditions, all in one place. 找一个立体感试听，铸造呼叫和表演试听一体的地方。 来自互联网
• We are now about to start auditions to find a touring guitarist. 我们现在准备找一个新的吉他手。 来自互联网

11 vice   

n.坏事；恶习；[pl.]台钳，老虎钳；adj.副的

参考例句：

• He guarded himself against vice.他避免染上坏习惯。
• They are sunk in the depth of vice.他们堕入了罪恶的深渊。

12 improvising   

即兴创作（improvise的现在分词形式）

参考例句：

• I knew he was improvising, an old habit of his. 我知道他是在即兴发挥，这是他的老习惯。
• A few lecturers have been improvising to catch up. 部分讲师被临时抽调以救急。

13 improvise   

v.即兴创作；临时准备，临时凑成

参考例句：

• If an actor forgets his words，he has to improvise.演员要是忘记台词，那就只好即兴现编。
• As we've not got the proper materials,we'll just have to improvise.我们没有弄到合适的材料，只好临时凑合了。

14 brutally   

adv.残忍地，野蛮地，冷酷无情地

参考例句：

• The uprising was brutally put down.起义被残酷地镇压下去了。
• A pro-democracy uprising was brutally suppressed.一场争取民主的起义被残酷镇压了。

15 suspense   

n.（对可能发生的事）紧张感，担心，挂虑

参考例句：

• The suspense was unbearable.这样提心吊胆的状况实在叫人受不了。
• The director used ingenious devices to keep the audience in suspense.导演用巧妙手法引起观众的悬念。

16 theatrical   

adj.剧场的，演戏的；做戏似的，做作的

参考例句：

• The final scene was dismayingly lacking in theatrical effect.最后一场缺乏戏剧效果，叫人失望。
• She always makes some theatrical gesture.她老在做些夸张的手势。