美国国家公共电台 NPR In 'Foxtrot,' A Filmmaker Captures The 'Bleeding Soul Of Israeli Society'

 

SCOTT SIMON, HOST:

"Foxtrot" is Israel's most celebrated¹ film of the year and perhaps its most controversial. It opens in theaters in the United States this weekend and tells the story of one family trying to grapple with the loss of their son at war. But it's also a searing critique of a society stuck in perpetual war. NPR's Bilal Qureshi has the story.

BILAL QURESHI, BYLINE²: "Foxtrot" opens with uniformed soldiers arriving at the front door of an upscale Tel Aviv apartment.

(SOUNDBITE OF DOORBELL)

QURESHI: Actor Lior Ashkenazi plays the film's central character, a grieving father named Michael.

LIOR ASHKENAZI: This is the most fear of every parent in Israel when they send their children to the service - to hear the doorbell. Everybody's afraid of it.

(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "FOXTROT")

UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR #1: (As character, speaking foreign language).

QURESHI: It's a fear born of experience in a country caught up in a seemingly unending dance with war - part of the reason for the film's title, says director Samuel Maoz.

SAMUEL MAOZ: "Foxtrot" deals with the open wound or bleeding soul of Israeli society. What a traumatic circle we are trapped in. I mean, we dance the foxtrot. Every generation tries to dance it differently, but like the foxtrot steps, we always end at the same starting point.

QURESHI: And his characters dance it onscreen.

(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "FOXTROT")

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

QURESHI: In one surreal scene at a remote Israeli checkpoint, code-named Foxtrot, an armed soldier dances with his rifle, twirling before he returns to the starting position.

(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)

QURESHI: The film is a metaphor⁴ for all wars, says journalist Allison Kaplan Sommer. She covered "Foxtrot" for the newspaper Haaretz. But she says it's also a story about the central role of the Israeli Defense⁵ Forces.

ALLISON KAPLAN SOMMER: Israel is a society in which, because of compulsory⁶ military service, every layer of society is affected⁷ by what happens in the IDF. Everyone from the highest classes to the lowest classes has this universal experience. And if you have a unique community in Israel of artists who have served in the military, have sent their children to the army, that is going to be, you know, very rich material to sort of explore creatively and very critically what happens.

QURESHI: Before Samuel Maoz became a filmmaker, he was a tank gunner and fought in Israel's first war in Lebanon in 1982. Maoz came home from that conflict with severe PTSD, and it inspired his acclaimed⁸ debut⁹ film, "Lebanon." He says his trauma³ was inseparable from that of the preceding generation of Holocaust¹⁰ survivors¹¹.

MAOZ: My generation - our, let's say, main problem was that we couldn't complain about anything. I mean, our parents, our teachers, obviously survived the most horrible trauma in the modern times and were naturally not very stable. When I, when we came back from war, we had two hands, two legs, 10 fingers without any burning marks on our skin. Complaining that we feel hurt inside us was unacceptable. I mean, overcome. Be a man. We survived the Holocaust.

QURESHI: Actor Lior Ashkenazi says successful, high-functioning Israelis like his character didn't talk about their experiences.

ASHKENAZI: They have the best family you could have, the best life you could have. But deep inside, they are - there's a word for it in Hebrew - it's srita. They have a scratch in their soul.

QURESHI: As his character struggles with the fate of his son, the scene shifts to the young man at his desolate¹² border checkpoint. One night, in a moment of panic, he opens fire on a car full of Palestinians, killing¹³ them all.

(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "FOXTROT")

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

(SOUNDBITE OF GUNFIRE)

SOMMER: It's a really dark moment, but it's sort of, you know, in the classic tradition of war films.

QURESHI: Journalist Allison Kaplan Sommer.

SOMMER: You've got very confused and immature¹⁴ 18- and 19-year-olds making these sort of tragically¹⁵ fateful decisions. And Israelis see them, you know, as their 18- and 19-year-old kids who, in other circumstances, would be freshmen¹⁶ figuring things out on a college campus. And instead, they're making life-and-death calls in a terrible conflict.

QURESHI: It's that scene that led Israel's culture minister, Miri Regev, to lash¹⁷ out against the filmmaker.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

MIRI REGEV: (Through interpreter) You know Israel, you know the Israeli army, and you know how moral it is. And you dare to present Israeli soldiers killing Arabs at a checkpoint and then burying them, and you call this horrendous¹⁸ lie a metaphor.

QURESHI: Following the film's premiere at the Venice Film Festival, the culture minister questioned the loyalty¹⁹ of director Samuel Maoz.

MAOZ: The fact that I fought in bloody²⁰ battles and paid a heavy price has no public value anymore. I'm a traitor²¹ because my culture minister announced, without seeing the film, that the film defames the IDF. And she incited²² the large public who has not seen the film and consider me as a traitor.

QURESHI: Despite the controversy²³, "Foxtrot" was Israel's entry to the Oscars. It wasn't nominated, but Samuel Maoz says he didn't make the film for global awards. It's his contribution to his country's future.

MAOZ: Our mistakes are the failures of our children. And I really believe that every human society should strive to be better. And the basic and necessary condition for improvement is the ability to accept self-criticism. But when self-criticism is marketed to the people as a betrayal and the critics considered to be traitors²⁴, you have no chance of rising. So if I criticize the place I live, I do it because I worry. I do it because I want to protect it, and I do it from love.

QURESHI: And Samuel Maoz says he did his "Foxtrot" to keep another generation from becoming stuck in the same dance. Bilal Qureshi, NPR News.

1 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。

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 trauma   

n.外伤，精神创伤

参考例句：

• Counselling is helping him work through this trauma.心理辅导正帮助他面对痛苦。
• The phobia may have its root in a childhood trauma.恐惧症可能源于童年时期的创伤。

4 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。

5 defense   

n.防御，保卫；[pl.]防务工事；辩护，答辩

参考例句：

• The accused has the right to defense.被告人有权获得辩护。
• The war has impacted the area with military and defense workers.战争使那个地区挤满了军队和防御工程人员。

6 compulsory   

n.强制的，必修的；规定的，义务的

参考例句：

• Is English a compulsory subject?英语是必修课吗？
• Compulsory schooling ends at sixteen.义务教育至16岁为止。

7 affected   

adj.不自然的，假装的

参考例句：

• She showed an affected interest in our subject.她假装对我们的课题感到兴趣。
• His manners are affected.他的态度不自然。

8 acclaimed   

adj.受人欢迎的

参考例句：

• They acclaimed him as the best writer of the year. 他们称赞他为当年的最佳作者。
• Confuscius is acclaimed as a great thinker. 孔子被赞誉为伟大的思想家。

9 debut   

n.首次演出，初次露面

参考例句：

• That same year he made his Broadway debut, playing a suave radio journalist.在那同一年里，他初次在百老汇登台，扮演一个温文而雅的电台记者。
• The actress made her debut in the new comedy.这位演员在那出新喜剧中首次登台演出。

10 holocaust   

n.大破坏；大屠杀

参考例句：

• The Auschwitz concentration camp always remind the world of the holocaust.奥辛威茨集中营总是让世人想起大屠杀。
• Ahmadinejad is denying the holocaust because he's as brutal as Hitler was.内贾德否认大屠杀，因为他像希特勒一样残忍。

11 survivors   

幸存者，残存者，生还者( survivor的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The survivors were adrift in a lifeboat for six days. 幸存者在救生艇上漂流了六天。
• survivors clinging to a raft 紧紧抓住救生筏的幸存者

12 desolate   

adj.荒凉的，荒芜的；孤独的，凄凉的；v.使荒芜，使孤寂

参考例句：

• The city was burned into a desolate waste.那座城市被烧成一片废墟。
• We all felt absolutely desolate when she left.她走后，我们都觉得万分孤寂。

13 killing   

n.巨额利润；突然赚大钱，发大财

参考例句：

• Investors are set to make a killing from the sell-off.投资者准备清仓以便大赚一笔。
• Last week my brother made a killing on Wall Street.上个周我兄弟在华尔街赚了一大笔。

14 immature   

adj.未成熟的，发育未全的，未充分发展的

参考例句：

• Tony seemed very shallow and immature.托尼看起来好像很肤浅，不夠成熟。
• The birds were in immature plumage.这些鸟儿羽翅未全。

15 tragically   

adv. 悲剧地，悲惨地

参考例句：

• Their daughter was tragically killed in a road accident. 他们的女儿不幸死于车祸。
• Her father died tragically in a car crash. 她父亲在一场车祸中惨死。

16 freshmen   

n.（中学或大学的）一年级学生( freshman的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• We are freshmen and they are sophomores. 我们是一年级学生，他们是二年级学生。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• University freshmen get lots of razzing, but they like the initiation. 大一新生受各种嘲弄，但是他们对这种入门经验甘之如饴。 来自辞典例句

17 lash   

v.系牢；鞭打；猛烈抨击；n.鞭打；眼睫毛

参考例句：

• He received a lash of her hand on his cheek.他突然被她打了一记耳光。
• With a lash of its tail the tiger leaped at her.老虎把尾巴一甩朝她扑过来。

18 horrendous   

adj.可怕的，令人惊惧的

参考例句：

• He described it as the most horrendous experience of his life.他形容这是自己一生中最可怕的经历。
• The mining industry in China has a horrendous safety record.中国的煤矿工业具有令人不安的安全记录。

19 loyalty   

n.忠诚，忠心

参考例句：

• She told him the truth from a sense of loyalty.她告诉他真相是出于忠诚。
• His loyalty to his friends was never in doubt.他对朋友的一片忠心从来没受到怀疑。

20 bloody   

adj.非常的的；流血的；残忍的；adv.很；vt.血染

参考例句：

• He got a bloody nose in the fight.他在打斗中被打得鼻子流血。
• He is a bloody fool.他是一个十足的笨蛋。

21 traitor   

n.叛徒，卖国贼

参考例句：

• The traitor was finally found out and put in prison.那个卖国贼终于被人发现并被监禁了起来。
• He was sold out by a traitor and arrested.他被叛徒出卖而被捕了。

22 incited   

刺激，激励，煽动( incite的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• He incited people to rise up against the government. 他煽动人们起来反对政府。
• The captain's example incited the men to bravery. 船长的榜样激发了水手们的勇敢精神。

23 controversy   

n.争论，辩论，争吵

参考例句：

• That is a fact beyond controversy.那是一个无可争论的事实。
• We ran the risk of becoming the butt of every controversy.我们要冒使自己在所有的纷争中都成为众矢之的的风险。

24 traitors   

卖国贼( traitor的名词复数 )； 叛徒； 背叛者； 背信弃义的人

参考例句：

• Traitors are held in infamy. 叛徒为人所不齿。
• Traitors have always been treated with contempt. 叛徒永被人们唾弃。