美国国家公共电台 NPR In 'Fire At Sea,' Glimpse The Migrant Crisis From The Heart Of Mediterranean

In 'Fire At Sea,' Glimpse The Migrant Crisis From The Heart Of Mediterranean¹

play pause stop mute unmute max volume 00:0003:03repeat repeat off Update Required To play the media you will need to either update your browser² to a recent version or update your Flash plugin. MICHEL MARTIN, HOST: 

We're going to hear about another location in the ongoing³ migrant crisis through a new documentary called "Fire At Sea." The film focuses on the Italian island of Lampedusa, which sits in the middle of the Mediterranean between Sicily and the coast of North Africa. The island has been a landing point for migrants from countries from Syria to Nigeria to the Ivory Coast. Here's a clip from the film. It's a distress⁴ call from 250 stranded⁵ migrants at sea begging the Italian navy for a rescue.

(SOUNDBITE OF DOCUMENTARY, "FIRE AT SEA")

UNIDENTIFIED MAN #1: How many people? How many people?

UNIDENTIFIED MAN #2: Hundred-and-fifty (ph).

UNIDENTIFIED MAN #1: Your position.

UNIDENTIFIED MAN #2: (Unintelligible) Please, we beg you, please help us.

UNIDENTIFIED MAN #1: Your position.

UNIDENTIFIED MAN #2: ...Of blood.

UNIDENTIFIED MAN #1: Your position.

MARTIN: We later learned that this vessel⁶ and the people aboard were never found. "Fire At Sea" unfolds over the course of a year, weaving back and forth⁷ between the peaceful daily rhythms of life for the island's Italian residents and the dangerous, nightmarish conditions of the overcrowded migrant boats adrift at sea.

The film recently won the highest prize at the Berlin International Film Festival and has been selected as Italy's foreign language entry for the next Academy Awards. The film's director Gianfranco Rosi joins us now from our studios in New York. Thanks so much for speaking with us.

GIANFRANCO ROSI: Thank you.

MARTIN: What drew you to Lampedusa? How did you even know to go there?

ROSI: Most of the time, Lampedusa was always covered by the media - by television, by newspaper - in moments of tragedies, when, you know, there was something horrible - death or some kind of very heavy things happen. But most of the time, it was left out the fact that, you know, on this island live 4,000 people and there are people that are there daily. So the idea was somehow to switch the point of view and telling the story, yes, of the migrant but through somehow the point of view of the islanders, people living there.

MARTIN: It's hard to find a clip, you know, or an excerpt⁸ to play because the film is so quiet. It doesn't have narration⁹. It's the people doing what they do or going about their lives. You know, for the most part there's no voiceover saying this thing happening now. And I was wondering what made you choose that approach.

ROSI: I had the imagination when I arrived there that this was going to be a place where there was an incredible interaction between migrants and the population. And that was never the case. Somehow these two worlds of the burly encounter - and the boats are intercepted¹⁰ or rescued in the middle of the sea. And then from there, they're brought into the island, and then from the island they spend two, three days there. They go in a center where they first identification. And then from there, they go to Italy to start the process of political refugee status.

So since the last three, four years, there's been an institutionalization of the arriving in Lampedusa. And it's harder and harder to have an interaction between the people of the island and migrants. So somehow I felt that when I was there, Lampedusa became, like, almost a microcosm, a metaphor¹¹ of what Europe is right now, you know? This is a world that we don't know, and we never have really chance of meeting and interacting with. So there's always a separation between our world and this world that is coming.

MARTIN: I want to play another clip from the film. It's a scene in which a group of recently-arrived migrants rescued - they're from Nigeria. They're gathering¹² in prayer, and one of them gives his testimony¹³ of what led them to...

ROSI: Yeah.

MARTIN: ...Make that very frightening journey. Here it is.

(SOUNDBITE OF DOCUMENTARY, "FIRE AT SEA")

UNIDENTIFIED MAN #3: This is my testimony. We would not go as (unintelligible). Many has died. Most, we are (unintelligible). And we flee from Nigeria, we run through the desert, we (unintelligible)...

MARTIN: And will you help us understand what he's saying there?

ROSI: Yes. It was a prayer of thanking the fact that these people coming from Nigeria, where they were under ISIS, and then through Nigeria to the desert and then from the desert to Libya. In Libya, they were in prison for six months. They were beaten up. And then at certain point, they have to decide either stay here and die or cross the sea and I might survive. And those people that were sinking, that was in a boat - we rescued them, and half of their friends didn't make it and half, they were able to survive.

And I had time to spend with them. I was with them in the boat. I was with them in the port. I was with them at the rescue center. And the next day when I went and tried to talk to them again, they invited me in their room and they asked me to witness this prayer and this thanking and asked if I could film.

And this is a moment for me which is very important in the film because you would really see a tragedy of this journey in just three minutes. In this very brief moment, everything is told, you know? The fear, the fact that they arrived finally in a place and the sense of freedom that they reach in Lampedusa and then the unknown of what's going to happen then in their life, you know, because of after they leave Lampedusa, these people are left on their own. And this is another big tragedy that I think we have to confront.

MARTIN: Do you ever wonder, say, five years from now or 10 years from now when we look back on this time what we think of ourselves?

ROSI: I don't know. I'm not very optimistic right now. I saw - I don't know in five years from now what's going to happen. If the whole world doesn't come together, like, you know, the way somehow they were able to put together all the head of states from all over the world for the climate issue, I think that's an issue that belongs to the world. And this cannot be left only to single country that are on the front line.

When Barack Obama made his speech at the United Nation about the immigration emergency, he said something very beautiful. He said who builds a wall, he' builds a prison for himself. And this is somehow what we have to understand that the world will never resist history. They never did - they will never resist, so we have to change completely our policy.

MARTIN: Gianfranco Rosi is a documentary filmmaker. His latest film "Fire At Sea" won the Golden Bear at the Berlin International Film Festival. It's been selected as Italy's foreign film entry for the 89th Academy Awards. It opened in the U.S. on Friday. Gianfranco Rosi, thank you so much for speaking with us.

ROSI: Thanks.

1 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。

2 browser   

n.浏览者

参考例句：

• View edits in a web browser.在浏览器中看编辑的效果。
• I think my browser has a list of shareware links.我想在浏览器中会有一系列的共享软件链接。

3 ongoing   

adj.进行中的，前进的

参考例句：

• The problem is ongoing.这个问题尚未解决。
• The issues raised in the report relate directly to Age Concern's ongoing work in this area.报告中提出的问题与“关心老人”组织在这方面正在做的工作有直接的关系。

4 distress   

n.苦恼，痛苦，不舒适；不幸；vt.使悲痛

参考例句：

• Nothing could alleviate his distress.什么都不能减轻他的痛苦。
• Please don't distress yourself.请你不要忧愁了。

5 stranded   

a.搁浅的，进退两难的

参考例句：

• He was stranded in a strange city without money. 他流落在一个陌生的城市里， 身无分文，一筹莫展。
• I was stranded in the strange town without money or friends. 我困在那陌生的城市，既没有钱，又没有朋友。

6 vessel   

n.船舶；容器，器皿；管，导管，血管

参考例句：

• The vessel is fully loaded with cargo for Shanghai.这艘船满载货物驶往上海。
• You should put the water into a vessel.你应该把水装入容器中。

7 forth   

adv.向前；向外，往外

参考例句：

• The wind moved the trees gently back and forth.风吹得树轻轻地来回摇晃。
• He gave forth a series of works in rapid succession.他很快连续发表了一系列的作品。

8 excerpt   

n.摘录，选录，节录

参考例句：

• This is an excerpt from a novel.这是一部小说的摘录。
• Can you excerpt something from the newspaper? 你能从报纸上选录些东西吗？

9 narration   

n.讲述，叙述；故事；记叙体

参考例句：

• The richness of his novel comes from his narration of it.他小说的丰富多采得益于他的叙述。
• Narration should become a basic approach to preschool education.叙事应是幼儿教育的基本途径。

10 intercepted   

拦截( intercept的过去式和过去分词 )； 截住； 截击； 拦阻

参考例句：

• Reporters intercepted him as he tried to leave the hotel. 他正要离开旅馆，记者们把他拦截住了。
• Reporters intercepted him as he tried to leave by the rear entrance. 他想从后门溜走，记者把他截住了。

11 metaphor   

n.隐喻，暗喻

参考例句：

• Using metaphor,we say that computers have senses and a memory.打个比方，我们可以说计算机有感觉和记忆力。
• In poetry the rose is often a metaphor for love.玫瑰在诗中通常作为爱的象征。

12 gathering   

n.集会，聚会，聚集

参考例句：

• He called on Mr. White to speak at the gathering.他请怀特先生在集会上讲话。
• He is on the wing gathering material for his novels.他正忙于为他的小说收集资料。

13 testimony   

n.证词；见证，证明

参考例句：

• The testimony given by him is dubious.他所作的证据是可疑的。
• He was called in to bear testimony to what the police officer said.他被传入为警官所说的话作证。