美国国家公共电台 NPR In 'Lion,' A Man Uses Google Earth To Search For His Family

In 'Lion,' A Man Uses Google Earth To Search For His Family

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Here's an almost unbelievable journey - a 4-year-old boy swept thousands of miles from home who 25 years later struggles to find his way back. A few years ago when writer Saroo Brierley spoke² to NPR about his early life, it sounded like the plot of a movie. Today, it is a movie, and critic Bob Mondello says "Lion" is quite a trip.

BOB MONDELLO, BYLINE³: Saroo is 5 when we meet him, a kid who dashes confidently around his tiny village in India and who's adventurous⁴ enough to tag along when his older brother Guddu goes to look for work a two-hour train ride away. At a train station not far from their town...

(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "LION")

SUNNY PAWAR: (As Saroo Brierley, foreign language spoken).

MONDELLO: ...They get separated. Saroo, played by newcomer Sunny Pawar, climbs aboard an empty passenger car looking for his brother...

(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "LION")

SUNNY: (As Saroo Brierley) Guddu?

MONDELLO: ...And falls asleep. When he wakes, the train is moving and locked, traveling unoccupied to its home base in Kolkata, almost a thousand miles away. That's where Saroo finally manages to get off. But I repeat, he's 5. He doesn't know his town's name. He can't read. He doesn't even speak Bengali, the language most people speak in Kolkata. He's just one of many, many poor children sleeping on cardboard in the streets, scavenging for food.

Still, he's luckier than most. An orphanage⁵ takes him in, and when he can't tell the authorities enough for them to reunite him with his mother, they find him adopted parents in Australia.

(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "LION")

NICOLE KIDMAN: (As Sue Brierley) Hello, there, hello.

MONDELLO: A new language, unimaginable differences, the first refrigerator he's ever seen. Flash forward 25 years - Saroo is a college grad, now played by Dev Patel, and memories are stirring. He's always told people he's from Kolkata, where he was adopted, but in an ethnic⁶ section of Melbourne, he tastes a sweet Indian treat and remembers once asking his brother if he could have one.

(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "LION")

SUNNY: (As Saroo Brierley) Guddu, (speaking foreign language).

MONDELLO: His friends are concerned, as he seems to go somewhere else in his head.

(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "LION")

ROONEY MARA: (As Lucy) You OK?

MONDELLO: Though he doesn't know it yet, he's already made a decision to go there for real.

(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "LION")

DEV PATEL: (As Saroo Brierley) I'm not from Kolkata. I'm lost.

MONDELLO: Getting found, he discovers, will take some doing. As a friend points out, it would take him a lifetime to check all the train stations in India.

(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "LION")

ADITYA ROY KAPOOR: (As Vijay Vora) How long were you on the train?

PATEL: (As Saroo Brierley) A couple of days.

KAPOOR: (As Vijay Vora) A couple of days. Saroo, what was your hometown again?

PATEL: (As Saroo Brierley) Canastella (ph). I must have it wrong because it doesn't exist.

KAPOOR: (As Vijay Vora) But there must be something else that you do remember.

PATEL: (As Saroo Brierley) The platform I fell asleep on had this big rain tank.

MONDELLO: OK, that's something. In an age of satellite imagery, might a rain tank, a water tower cast a shadow? Director Garth Davis finds the visual tools to explore that notion. In the film's opening section, he uses aerial shots to depict⁷ 5-year-old Saroo as a tiny cork⁸ bobbing in a sea of humanity. Now aerials of a different sort come into play.

And though the latter half of "Lion" doesn't pack quite the same Dickensian wallop as the first half, the emotional stakes are never slighted. Just watch as Saroo's Australian mom, played with restraint by Nicole Kidman, wrestles⁹ with pain and pride as she realizes she's raised her adopted son to be the kind of sharp young man who'd go searching on Google Earth for the family he barely remembers. Patel's adult Saroo is intriguingly¹⁰ conflicted about this in the film's second half, helped immensely by the heavy lifting 5-year-old Sunny Pawar has done in the first.

There's a real-life revelation at the end of "Lion" that had many of the presumably hardened critics at one Toronto Film Festival screening choking back sobs¹¹. I won't pretend I wasn't one of them. I'm Bob Mondello.

1 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。

2 spoke   

n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说

参考例句：

• They sourced the spoke nuts from our company.他们的轮辐螺帽是从我们公司获得的。
• The spokes of a wheel are the bars that connect the outer ring to the centre.辐条是轮子上连接外圈与中心的条棒。

3 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。

4 adventurous   

adj.爱冒险的；惊心动魄的，惊险的，刺激的　

参考例句：

• I was filled with envy at their adventurous lifestyle.我很羨慕他们敢于冒险的生活方式。
• He was predestined to lead an adventurous life.他注定要过冒险的生活。

5 orphanage   

n.孤儿院

参考例句：

• They dispensed new clothes to the children in the orphanage.他们把新衣服发给孤儿院的小孩们。
• They gave the proceeds of the sale to the orphanage.他们把销售的收入给了这家孤儿院。

6 ethnic   

adj.人种的，种族的，异教徒的

参考例句：

• This music would sound more ethnic if you played it in steel drums.如果你用钢鼓演奏，这首乐曲将更具民族特色。
• The plan is likely only to aggravate ethnic frictions.这一方案很有可能只会加剧种族冲突。

7 depict   

vt.描画，描绘；描写，描述

参考例句：

• I don't care to see plays or films that depict murders or violence.我不喜欢看描写谋杀或暴力的戏剧或电影。
• Children's books often depict farmyard animals as gentle,lovable creatures.儿童图书常常把农场的动物描写得温和而可爱。

8 cork   

n.软木，软木塞

参考例句：

• We heard the pop of a cork.我们听见瓶塞砰的一声打开。
• Cork is a very buoyant material.软木是极易浮起的材料。

9 wrestles   

v.（与某人）搏斗( wrestle的第三人称单数 )；扭成一团；扭打；（与…）摔跤

参考例句：

• The book also wrestles with the idea of individualism. 书中也与个人英雄主义的观念进行搏斗。 来自互联网
• He that wrestles with us strengthens our nerves and sharpens our skill. 和我们搏斗的人锻炼了我们的勇气，磨练了我们的技能。 来自互联网

10 intriguingly   

参考例句：

• Intriguingly, she gave to the music a developed although oddly malleable personality. 最神奇的是，她的音乐具有成熟却又很奇怪地极富可塑性。 来自互联网
• Intriguingly, the patients brains were riddled with tangles, but not amyloid plaques. 有趣的是，患者的大脑中充满了各缠结，但并没有粉斑。 来自互联网

11 sobs   

啜泣（声），呜咽（声）( sob的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• She was struggling to suppress her sobs. 她拼命不让自己哭出来。
• She burst into a convulsive sobs. 她突然抽泣起来。