美国国家公共电台 NPR In 'Birds Of Passage,' A New Lens On The Narcotrafficking Drama

 

MARY LOUISE KELLY, HOST:

The decadeslong drug war in Colombia has fueled a whole genre¹ of movies and TV shows. Think men with guns wearing crisp suits in the tropical heat, like in the Netflix series "Narcos." A new film from Colombia shows another version of that story. It's called "Birds Of Passage." NPR's Bilal Qureshi has more.

BILAL QURESHI, BYLINE²: Film critic Monica Castillo says movies about Colombian drug cartels may be popular, but they have serious blind spots.

MONICA CASTILLO: U.S. dramas or productions keep repeating the same narrative³ of narcos as gangsters⁴, and look how cool they are and how much power and money and wealth - you know, the whole sort of fascination⁵ with Pablo Escobar, for instance. But there is a real cost to a lot of that violence.

QURESHI: In this drug war movie, the cost is cultural.

(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "BIRDS OF PASSAGE")

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

QURESHI: "Birds Of Passage" opens in 1968. A young woman dressed in a billowing red dress that looks like wings dances with a suitor in an elaborate courtship ritual.

(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "BIRDS OF PASSAGE")

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

QURESHI: This is the world of the indigenous⁶ Wayuu people. Manuel Betancourt is a Colombian culture writer and says the Wayuu are rarely seen on-screen.

MANUEL BETANCOURT: They are a very specific group that, really, were never colonized⁷ by the Spanish. They have a very particular relationship with the Colombian government in that they sort of operate under their own rules and justice. So even just seeing that in the film, as a Colombian, it's like seeing your country in a brand-new way.

QURESHI: The directors of "Birds Of Passage" are Cristina Gallego and Ciro Guerra.

CIRO GUERRA: (Through interpreter) When we talk about cinema about the Indigenous community, we're often thinking about distant ethnographic approximations that exoticize. We wanted to make something that brings us close to them and lets us tell the story from within.

QURESHI: The filmmakers immerse viewers in one Wayuu family that is ripped apart by the arrival of the marijuana trade. It's the women who can sense the chaos⁸ to come.

(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "BIRDS OF PASSAGE")

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

QURESHI: Filmmaker Cristina Gallego explains that the Wayuu are a matrilineal society, and the women see the omens⁹.

CRISTINA GALLEGO: (Through interpreter) Our Indigenous communities have a strong connection with myth, with magic, with the supernatural, but really, it's with the manifestation¹⁰ of nature. When nature speaks, what does it want to say?

QURESHI: In the film, it says that money and greed will destroy the traditional culture. The Wayuu also inspired Colombia's most famous novelist, Gabriel Garcia Marquez, and his iconic magic realism. Garcia Marquez's grandmother was of Wayuu descent. And filmmaker Ciro Guerra says the writer's most famous novel was a guiding force.

GUERRA: (Through interpreter) For us, it was a fountain of inspiration because that's really what a novel like "One Hundred Years Of Solitude¹¹" is about. It's about the arrival of modernity and the arrival of the 20th century and all the things it brought to a place that was, in some ways, outside the laws of the modern world.

(SOUNDBITE OF AIRPLANE BUZZING)

QURESHI: On-screen, the magic realism translates into dream sequences - widescreen images of storm clouds gathering¹² that foreshadow the looming¹³ tragedy.

(SOUNDBITE OF THUNDER BOOMING)

QURESHI: Culture writer Manuel Betancourt says the influence of the novelist is palpable in the finished film.

BETANCOURT: It's his magical realism at its most elemental. And it lends the movie a more ethereal aspect.

QURESHI: There's perhaps nothing more ethereal than the birds of the title, which appear in hypnotic sequences on-screen, walking silently through a room, as filmmaker Cristina Gallego explains.

(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)

GALLEGO: (Through interpreter) The Wayuu have a strong relationship with birds and what they symbolize¹⁴. When a certain bird appears, they're the messengers of what's to come. We wanted to speak to that.

We wanted to speak, also, to the arrival of the planes because they are birds made of metal. In the '50s in Colombia, pajaros - birds - was used to refer to people with guns, people who brought violence with them.

QURESHI: The planes land and take off with the marijuana as the Wayuu clans¹⁵ descend¹⁶ into war.

(SOUNDBITE OF AIRPLANE BUZZING)

QURESHI: To achieve the cultural specificity of the movie, the filmmakers hired members of the community.

GALLEGO: (Through interpreter) Thirty percent of the people who worked on this film were Wayuu, and they were constantly correcting us on how we represented them.

QURESHI: Despite their old world subjects, filmmakers Ciro Guerra and Cristina Gallego are at the forefront of a Latin American new wave. Their previous collaboration¹⁷, "Embrace Of The Serpent," was nominated for an Oscar, and "Birds Of Passage" was Colombia's official entry to this year's Oscars. Gallego and Guerra say they see cinema as a way of continuing the role of storytelling in their country.

GUERRA: (Through interpreter) For the Wayuu and for indigenous communities, what's important is that their stories are known and that they're kept alive. They do that through song and through an oral tradition. And they want us to learn their lessons so that we don't repeat their mistakes.

QURESHI: The filmmakers say cinema is their way of bringing those ancient lessons to a new generation and to those accustomed to drug war cliches. Bilal Qureshi, NPR News.

1 genre   

n.(文学、艺术等的)类型，体裁，风格

参考例句：

• My favorite music genre is blues.我最喜欢的音乐种类是布鲁斯音乐。
• Superficially,this Shakespeare's work seems to fit into the same genre.从表面上看， 莎士比亚的这个剧本似乎属于同一类型。

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 narrative   

n.叙述，故事；adj.叙事的，故事体的

参考例句：

• He was a writer of great narrative power.他是一位颇有记述能力的作家。
• Neither author was very strong on narrative.两个作者都不是很善于讲故事。

4 gangsters   

匪徒，歹徒( gangster的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The gangsters offered him a sum equivalent to a whole year's earnings. 歹徒提出要给他一笔相当于他一年收入的钱。
• One of the gangsters was caught by the police. 歹徒之一被警察逮捕。

5 fascination   

n.令人着迷的事物，魅力，迷恋

参考例句：

• He had a deep fascination with all forms of transport.他对所有的运输工具都很着迷。
• His letters have been a source of fascination to a wide audience.广大观众一直迷恋于他的来信。

6 indigenous   

adj.土产的，土生土长的，本地的

参考例句：

• Each country has its own indigenous cultural tradition.每个国家都有自己本土的文化传统。
• Indians were the indigenous inhabitants of America.印第安人是美洲的土著居民。

7 colonized   

开拓殖民地，移民于殖民地( colonize的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• The area was colonized by the Vikings. 这一地区曾沦为维京人的殖民地。
• The British and French colonized the Americas. 英国人和法国人共同在美洲建立殖民地。

8 chaos   

n.混乱，无秩序

参考例句：

• After the failure of electricity supply the city was in chaos.停电后，城市一片混乱。
• The typhoon left chaos behind it.台风后一片混乱。

9 omens   

n.前兆，预兆( omen的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The omens for the game are still not propitious. 这场比赛仍不被看好。 来自辞典例句
• Such omens betide no good. 这种征兆预示情况不妙。 来自辞典例句

10 manifestation   

n.表现形式；表明；现象

参考例句：

• Her smile is a manifestation of joy.她的微笑是她快乐的表现。
• What we call mass is only another manifestation of energy.我们称之为质量的东西只是能量的另一种表现形态。

11 solitude   

n. 孤独; 独居,荒僻之地,幽静的地方

参考例句：

• People need a chance to reflect on spiritual matters in solitude. 人们需要独处的机会来反思精神上的事情。
• They searched for a place where they could live in solitude. 他们寻找一个可以过隐居生活的地方。

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 looming   

n.上现蜃景（光通过低层大气发生异常折射形成的一种海市蜃楼）v.隐约出现，阴森地逼近( loom的现在分词 )；隐约出现，阴森地逼近

参考例句：

• The foothills were looming ahead through the haze. 丘陵地带透过薄雾朦胧地出现在眼前。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Then they looked up. Looming above them was Mount Proteome. 接着他们往上看，在其上隐约看到的是蛋白质组山。 来自英汉非文学 - 生命科学 - 回顾与展望

14 symbolize   

vt.作为...的象征，用符号代表

参考例句：

• Easter eggs symbolize the renewal of life.复活蛋象征新生。
• Dolphins symbolize the breath of life.海豚象征着生命的气息。

15 clans   

宗族( clan的名词复数 )； 氏族； 庞大的家族； 宗派

参考例句：

• There are many clans in European countries. 欧洲国家有很多党派。
• The women were the great power among the clans [gentes], as everywhere else. 妇女在克兰〈氏族〉里，乃至一般在任何地方，都有很大的势力。 来自英汉非文学 - 家庭、私有制和国家的起源

16 descend   

vt./vi.传下来，下来，下降

参考例句：

• I hope the grace of God would descend on me.我期望上帝的恩惠。
• We're not going to descend to such methods.我们不会沦落到使用这种手段。

17 collaboration   

n.合作，协作；勾结

参考例句：

• The two companies are working in close collaboration each other.这两家公司密切合作。
• He was shot for collaboration with the enemy.他因通敌而被枪毙了。