美国国家公共电台 NPR--'The Swimmers' is a biographical drama about 2 sisters who flee Syria

'The Swimmers' is a biographical¹ drama about 2 sisters who flee Syria

Transcript²

The Netflix film The Swimmers is the story of Yusra and Sara Mardini, sisters and elite³ swimmers who flee Syria during the civil war. NPR's Steve Inskeep speaks with Nathalie Issa, who plays Yusra.

STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:

The Netflix movie "The Swimmers" tells the story of two sisters. They tease⁴ each other, as sisters do, and push each other's buttons. In an early scene, they're together in a hallway, knocking on a door when Sara tells Yusra what awaits them behind it.

(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "THE SWIMMERS")

MANAL ISSA: (As Sara) By the way, it's not a dinner. It's your surprise birthday party.

NATHALIE ISSA: (As Yusra) I hate you.

M ISSA: (As Sara) Just don't ruin it for them.

UNIDENTIFIED ACTORS: (As characters) Surprise.

INSKEEP: The girls speak in English, though the birthday song, the ruined surprise, is sung in Arabic...

(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "THE SWIMMERS")

UNIDENTIFIED ACTORS: (As characters, singing in Arabic).

INSKEEP: ...Because the family lives in Syria. It's 2011 when, for at least some people, Syria was a nice place to live. The sisters are talented swimmers whose father wants to send them to the Olympics until Syria's civil war begins, and no place is safe from falling bombs, not even the pool where they compete.

(SOUNDBITE OF EXPLOSION)

INSKEEP: "The Swimmers" is based on the real-life story of Syrian sisters who fled their country. Sara and Yusra Mardini became refugees⁶, took a boat to Europe, and one of them, Yusra, did reach the Olympics afterward⁷. In the movie, the sisters are played by two actors who are themselves sisters, Manal and Nathalie Issa. Nathalie, of course, knows something about being a sister.

N ISSA: We've always been close. We have, like, seven-year age gap between each other, but it's like, we never feel it.

INSKEEP: She also knows about fleeing a war. She grew up in Lebanon, whose many wars include one in 2006. NPR News reported on the start of the fighting.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

NICHOLAS BLANFORD: This is an area where Hezbollah and the Israelis have clashed⁸ quite often in the past. And at the moment, they're being shelled quite heavily by the Israelis. There's been a continuous shelling all afternoon.

N ISSA: When I was 8 years old, like, the war started in Lebanon, so we came to France with my family.

INSKEEP: Do you have memories of what drove your family away at that time? What was happening?

N ISSA: Of course. It's just like, we could die any second. And I remember, I was 8 years old, and I was not - like, I knew that I could die any minute. It's not what a child should think about. And I was really scared for my parents to die. I was never scared myself would die. I was always scared for the people around me. And you were never expecting when the bomb will come and just kill you.

INSKEEP: She could relate to the story of the Syrian swimmers, though Issa says the Syrians' escape was far more harrowing than her own. At one point in the film, the sisters are on a small, crowded boat.

(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "THE SWIMMERS")

UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR #1: (As character) We're in this together. We need to work together. (Speaking Arabic).

INSKEEP: And as the boat takes on water, they try to pair up swimmers with nonswimmers, speaking in both English and Arabic.

(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "THE SWIMMERS")

UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR #1: (As character) Who here knows how to swim? (Speaking Arabic).

UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR #2: (As character, speaking Arabic).

UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR #3: (As character, speaking Arabic).

UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR #2: (As character, speaking Arabic).

UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR #1: (As character) OK, the people with their hands up, choose someone with their hands down. It's your duty to help them. It's your responsibility. (Speaking Arabic).

INSKEEP: How much thought did you and the filmmakers give to which language to speak when?

N ISSA: Yeah. This actually was a huge debate because we really wanted to speak Arabic all the time during the Syria times, and between the sisters, we really wanted to speak all the time Arabic because this is what happens. But we really wanted to at least add the Arabic during the most, like, sensitive scenes - for example, the fight scenes, where they cry, where they fight and everything, where they really are in their deepest emotion, to add the Arabic thing because this is how it feels like. And the English part, of course, it seems logic⁹ when they meet refugees, when they are in Berlin and everything. If it was up to me, we would have spoken Arabic during all the Syria scenes and all the scenes between two sisters. But...

INSKEEP: Why would you have wanted that?

N ISSA: Because this is the reality, I mean, when I'm with my sister because I also came from Lebanon, and I'm in France, and when I'm with my family, I don't speak English; I speak Arabic. And this is - it's still happening after 15 years. And so - but the thing is that Yusra and Sara also speak English a lot together, and they also told us that sometimes when they wanted to speak about something that their parents - that they didn't want their parents to hear...

INSKEEP: (Laughter).

N ISSA: They used to - yeah, they used to use English. But yeah, sometimes we wanted to speak more Arabic because it's such a beautiful language, and I think it should be heard more, especially on a big platform. Don't you think so?

INSKEEP: It is a beautiful language.

(SOUNDBITE OF WHISTLE)

INSKEEP: Since it happened in real life, it's not giving away the ending to say that Yusra swam in the 2016 Olympics.

(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "THE SWIMMERS")

UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR #4: (As character) Take your mark.

(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC, SPLASHING)

INSKEEP: The organizers allowed the creation¹⁰ of a refugee⁵ team for athletes separated from their nations. Nathalie Issa portrays¹¹ Yusra onscreen in that moment, both triumphant¹² and sad.

Can I ask one more silly question?

N ISSA: Of course.

INSKEEP: Are you a good swimmer?

N ISSA: Now, yes. I do...

INSKEEP: (Laughter) What did you have to do to be?

N ISSA: I didn't know how to swim before. I really...

INSKEEP: At all?

N ISSA: At all.

INSKEEP: Go on. So you became an Olympic swimmer, at least on the screen. What did you have to do?

N ISSA: Yeah, in six weeks (laughter), I went from nonswimmer to Olympic swimmer.

INSKEEP: Wow.

N ISSA: I was really scared of water. And this is what made me also feel like, oh, my God, I'm not good enough to be able to do this role. So my love for Yusra, my love for the script made me, like, have this courage to face my fear.

INSKEEP: It was persuasive¹³. What is it that you want the outside world to know about your region that they didn't know that you want to represent to them?

N ISSA: That we are normal. You know, when I arrived to France, a lot of people asked me weird¹⁴ question about the Middle East. Like, are you beaten by your dad? Are you allowed to go dance? Are you allowed to go out? Is everybody veiled¹⁵? Like, why are you not veiled? Like, a lot of questions that I find weird but also a lack of representation¹⁶, I think. So I want them to know that our people just live like European girl. Like, they go to dance. They have fun. They are not, like, under the control of a father or anything. And they just are normal, and they don't always live in fear, and there is not always, like, problems in the country. They are just people having dreams like you guys and that we are just normal, just normal.

INSKEEP: Those words from Nathalie Issa bring to mind the way the swimmers are at the start of the Netflix film, before their unimaginable experiences, that moment when they're just two sisters in a family walking together, teasing¹⁷ each other, thinking of the future.

1 biographical   

a.传记(体)的

参考例句：

• The village paper published biographical sketches of the boys. 村里的报纸还刊登了两个小孩的小传。
• I gathered biographical notes from other Red Army leaders. 我向红军其他领导人搜集传记材料。

2 transcript   

n.抄本，誊本，副本，肄业证书

参考例句：

• A transcript of the tapes was presented as evidence in court.一份录音带的文字本作为证据被呈交法庭。
• They wouldn't let me have a transcript of the interview.他们拒绝给我一份采访的文字整理稿。

3 elite   

n.精英阶层；实力集团；adj.杰出的，卓越的

参考例句：

• The power elite inside the government is controlling foreign policy.政府内部的一群握有实权的精英控制着对外政策。
• We have a political elite in this country.我们国家有一群政治精英。

4 tease   

vt.戏弄，取笑，挑逗，撩拨；n.戏弄人者

参考例句：

• The other boys tease him because he is fat.因为他很胖，所以其他男生都取笑他。
• His friends used to tease him about his tatty clothes.他的朋友过去常常笑话他破旧的衣服。

5 refugee   

n.难民，流亡者

参考例句：

• The refugee was condemned to a life of wandering.这个难民注定要过流浪的生活。
• The refugee is suffering for want of food and medical supplies.难民苦于缺少食物和医药用品。

6 refugees   

n.避难者，难民( refugee的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The UN has begun making airdrops of food to refugees. 联合国已开始向难民空投食物。
• They claimed they were political refugees and not economic migrants. 他们宣称自己是政治难民，不是经济移民。

7 afterward   

adv.后来；以后

参考例句：

• Let's go to the theatre first and eat afterward. 让我们先去看戏，然后吃饭。
• Afterward,the boy became a very famous artist.后来，这男孩成为一个很有名的艺术家。

8 clashed   

发出撞击声（clash的过去式与过去分词形式）

参考例句：

• The color of the curtains clashed with the color of the carpet. 窗帘的颜色与地毯的颜色不协调。
• Her wedding clashed with my examination, so I couldn't go. 她的婚礼与我的考试冲突，因此我无法参加。

9 logic   

n.逻辑(学)；逻辑性

参考例句：

• What sort of logic is that?这是什么逻辑？
• I don't follow the logic of your argument.我不明白你的论点逻辑性何在。

10 creation   

n.创造，创造的作品，产物，宇宙，天地万物

参考例句：

• Language is the most important mental creation of man.语言是人类头脑最重要的产物。
• The creation of new playgrounds will benefit the local children.新游戏场的建立将有益于当地的儿童。

11 portrays   

v.画像( portray的第三人称单数 )；描述；描绘；描画

参考例句：

• The museum collection vividly portrays the heritage of 200 years of canals. 博物馆的藏品让运河200 年的历史再现眼前。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The film portrays Gandhi as a kind of superman. 这部电影把甘地描绘成一个超人。 来自《简明英汉词典》

12 triumphant   

adj.胜利的，成功的；狂欢的，喜悦的

参考例句：

• The army made a triumphant entry into the enemy's capital.部队胜利地进入了敌方首都。
• There was a positively triumphant note in her voice.她的声音里带有一种极为得意的语气。

13 persuasive   

adj.有说服力的，能说得使人相信的

参考例句：

• His arguments in favour of a new school are very persuasive.他赞成办一座新学校的理由很有说服力。
• The evidence was not really persuasive enough.证据并不是太有说服力。

14 weird   

adj.古怪的，离奇的；怪诞的，神秘而可怕的

参考例句：

• From his weird behaviour,he seems a bit of an oddity.从他不寻常的行为看来，他好像有点怪。
• His weird clothes really gas me.他的怪衣裳简直笑死人。

15 veiled   

adj. 戴着面纱的, 隐藏的 动词veil的过去式和过去分词

参考例句：

• a thinly veiled threat 几乎不加掩饰的威胁
• There was a barely veiled hostility in her tone. 她语气中带着几乎未加掩饰的敌意。

16 representation   

n.表现某人（或某事物）的东西，图画，雕塑

参考例句：

• The painting is a representation of a storm at sea.这幅画描绘的是海上的暴风雨。
• All parties won representation in the national assembly.所有政党在国民大会中都赢得了代表资格。

17 teasing   

adj.戏弄的，逗趣的v.取笑，戏弄( tease的现在分词 )；梳理（羊毛等）

参考例句：

• Don't get upset—I was only teasing. 别不高兴，我只是在逗你玩。
• I didn't think you meant that seriously;I thought you were teasing. 我未想到你是当真的，我原以为你是开玩笑的。 来自《简明英汉词典》