VOA标准英语2008年-'Ezra,' Tragic Tale of Child Soldiers in Africa

By Carolyn Weaver¹
New York
23 January 2008
 

The plight² of child soldiers, especially in Africa, has captured world attention through news reports and personal accounts. Last year, Ismael Beah's book, A Long Way Gone, about his experiences in Sierra Leone, was a bestseller. Now a film by Nigerian-born director Newton Aduaka explores the psychological and social face of the problem, by telling the fictional³ story of one young victim kidnapped into a rebel force. It will screen commercially in New York for two weeks in February, and also play at Los Angeles’s Pan-African Film Festival.

“I felt I had to do a film that not just showed you about war, but that put you in the center of what it was like,” Newton Aduaka says.  His second feature film, “Ezra,” opens on a peaceful scene: a small boy walking to school, his older sister already at her desk, gazing out the window occasionally, as if looking for her brother.

Suddenly, the school yard is invaded by fighters dressed in camouflage⁴ uniforms. They grab a number of children, including six-year-old Ezra, and march them into the bush to the rebel camp. One little boy will not stop crying, and in one of the film’s most horrifying⁵ moments, the rebel commander tells a subordinate to give him the “VIP” treatment. He is shot dead on the spot.

Mr. Aduaka says that incident was not in the screenplay as he first wrote it. “That is something one of the children told me. I felt something was missing. There was no reason to show why these kids stayed on. But when you see that -- of course you fall in line, you don't ask questions any more from that point on,” he said.

The film moves from Ezra's ten years as a boy soldier until 2002, after peace, when he appears before a truth and reconciliation⁶ tribunal. It shows how Ezra and the other children are indoctrinated into the cause of killing⁷, and even injected with methamphetamines to energize⁸ and disorient them.

“You can fight for four days nonstop,” Ezra tells the tribunal, about the nights when his commander drugged the child soldiers. “You have no fear, you feel nothing. You become the gun. You are the AK-47. Your conscience is not there. You are not human."  The presiding investigator⁹ asks him, “So you don't remember how many or who you killed?” Ezra answers, “No.”

Ezra also remembers nothing about the night in which his rebel faction¹⁰ attacked his own village, an attack in which his parents were killed and his sister gravely injured.  Much of the film is about the human relationships of the child soldiers, despite their brutalization. Ezra's sister is loyal to him despite her knowledge that he was among the attacking rebels. Ezra also falls in love and marries a girl soldier, eventually trying to flee the country with her and his sister.

The cast includes Sierra Leoneans, Ugandans, Rwandans and Malians, as well as European and Americans of African descent. Most had not acted before, and two had actually been child soldiers. The director, who says the story is based on the Sierra Leone conflict, interviewed a number of child soldiers before he wrote his screenplay. They became a major source, he says, “especially three kids that I met that let me into their souls, so to speak. I met a lot of children, but a lot of them would tell me about exterior¹¹ things, but not about what was going on in the inside."

Aduaka says the film tries to show that colonialism set the stage for the African conflicts in which 15 million have died in the past half-century. He notes that European powers carved Africa into artificial nations and armed all sides of the wars that followed. “I was interested in what brought about this violence,” he says. “Where is it coming from? It is being fed by arms dealers¹², by people who are mostly westerners. The AK-47 is not made in Africa,” he says.

“Ezra” makes the case that healing for individuals and societies can begin only after a truthful¹³ accounting¹⁴ is made, and forgiveness sought. But it does not end on a hopeful note, and the director says he is not optimistic for many of the former child soldiers. “I always say that if this happened to a child in the West, they would be in therapy for the rest of their natural lives,” he says. “They will cope, because they have to. But I know what they are carrying with them, they are carrying this thing with them, and they will have to deal with it.”

1 weaver   

n.织布工；编织者

参考例句：

• She was a fast weaver and the cloth was very good.她织布织得很快，而且布的质量很好。
• The eager weaver did not notice my confusion.热心的纺织工人没有注意到我的狼狈相。

2 plight   

n.困境，境况，誓约，艰难；vt.宣誓，保证，约定

参考例句：

• The leader was much concerned over the plight of the refugees.那位领袖对难民的困境很担忧。
• She was in a most helpless plight.她真不知如何是好。

3 fictional   

adj.小说的，虚构的

参考例句：

• The names of the shops are entirely fictional.那些商店的名字完全是虚构的。
• The two authors represent the opposite poles of fictional genius.这两位作者代表了天才小说家两个极端。

4 camouflage   

n./v.掩饰，伪装

参考例句：

• The white fur of the polar bear is a natural camouflage.北极熊身上的白色的浓密软毛是一种天然的伪装。
• The animal's markings provide effective camouflage.这种动物身上的斑纹是很有效的伪装。

5 horrifying   

a.令人震惊的，使人毛骨悚然的

参考例句：

• He went to great pains to show how horrifying the war was. 他极力指出战争是多么的恐怖。
• The possibility of war is too horrifying to contemplate. 战争的可能性太可怕了，真不堪细想。

6 reconciliation   

n.和解，和谐，一致

参考例句：

• He was taken up with the reconciliation of husband and wife.他忙于做夫妻间的调解工作。
• Their handshake appeared to be a gesture of reconciliation.他们的握手似乎是和解的表示。

7 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。

8 energize   

vt.给予(某人或某物)精力、能量

参考例句：

• It is used to energize the city.它的作用是为城市供给能量。
• This is a great way to energize yourself and give yourself more power!这种方法非常棒，可以激活你的能量，让你有更多的活力！

9 investigator   

n.研究者，调查者，审查者

参考例句：

• He was a special investigator for the FBI.他是联邦调查局的特别调查员。
• The investigator was able to deduce the crime and find the criminal.调查者能够推出犯罪过程并锁定罪犯。

10 faction   

n.宗派，小集团；派别；派系斗争

参考例句：

• Faction and self-interest appear to be the norm.派系之争和自私自利看来非常普遍。
• I now understood clearly that I was caught between the king and the Bunam's faction.我现在完全明白自己已陷入困境，在国王与布纳姆集团之间左右为难。

11 exterior   

adj.外部的，外在的；表面的

参考例句：

• The seed has a hard exterior covering.这种子外壳很硬。
• We are painting the exterior wall of the house.我们正在给房子的外墙涂漆。

12 dealers   

n.商人( dealer的名词复数 )；贩毒者；毒品贩子；发牌者

参考例句：

• There was fast bidding between private collectors and dealers. 私人收藏家和交易商急速竞相喊价。
• The police were corrupt and were operating in collusion with the drug dealers. 警察腐败，与那伙毒品贩子内外勾结。

13 truthful   

adj.真实的，说实话的，诚实的

参考例句：

• You can count on him for a truthful report of the accident.你放心，他会对事故作出如实的报告的。
• I don't think you are being entirely truthful.我认为你并没全讲真话。

14 accounting   

n.会计，会计学，借贷对照表

参考例句：

• A job fell vacant in the accounting department.财会部出现了一个空缺。
• There's an accounting error in this entry.这笔账目里有差错。