美国国家公共电台 NPR 'City Of Ghosts' Shows Everyday Horrors Of Living With ISIS

 

MICHEL MARTIN, HOST:

Now to Raqqa in Syria. For the past three years, it's been known as the defacto capital of the Islamic State. Coalition¹ forces have begun a drive to force ISIS out of that city. And for years, ISIS has tried to make sure that whatever the world knew about Raqqa came from their carefully produced propaganda videos.

But from the beginning, a small group of young Syrians - college students, teachers and other professionals - have worked to counteract² the propaganda. They call themselves Raqqa Is Being Slaughtered³ Silently or RBSS. And they've been surreptitiously documenting daily life and daily terror under ISIS rule, sending their reporting out to the world, all at extreme risk to themselves and their loved ones. A new documentary in theaters this week called "City Of Ghosts" tells their story.

(SOUNDBITE OF DOCUMENTARY, "CITY OF GHOSTS")

UNIDENTIFIED JOURNALIST #1: Much of what we know about atrocities⁴ committed by ISIS in Syria comes from courageous⁵ citizens armed with smartphones.

UNIDENTIFIED JOURNALIST #2: The dozen activists⁷ are pulling back the curtain on the horrors of ISIS rule in their small city.

MOHAMED: (Foreign language spoken).

UNIDENTIFIED JOURNALIST #3: "I need to stay alive," Mohamed told us, "keep getting the word out."

MARTIN: To hear more about the film, we're joined now by its director, Matthew Heineman and one of the central subjects, Abdalaziz Alhamza, spokesman for Raqqa Is Being Slaughtered Silently. They're both with us from our studios in Culver City, Calif. Matthew Heineman, Abdalaziz Alhamza, thank you both so much for speaking with us today.

MATTHEW HEINEMAN: Thanks for having us.

MARTIN: So, Abdalaziz, I'm going to start with you. Do you remember how it was that you and your colleagues decided⁸ to start documenting what was happening? Do you remember, was there a moment when it made you say, this is something that has to happen?

ABDALAZIZ ALHAMZA: Yes. So for my colleagues and I, all of us, we used to be activists during Syrian revolution. Even before ISIS, some of us were forced to leave the city. And we ended up in Turkey. So watching ISIS propaganda like the fake news that were coming from our city, no one paid attention back that time. So we had a Skype call. And directly after the Skype call, we decided to do something. And we started that movement.

MARTIN: What was your goal?

ALHAMZA: When we started our organization, one of our goals was to educate, to draw the attention of people everywhere about what's going on in Syria in general and Raqqa specifically. So people, they will be aware about what's going on in Syria.

MARTIN: And, Matthew, what about you? What was your goal?

HEINEMAN: You know, I don't start out making films with a certain goal in mind. You know, I think I was fascinated by this war of ideas, this war propaganda, this war of information between ISIS's slick propaganda, almost Hollywood-style videos on one side and then RBSS's work on the other trying to counter this narrative⁹. But for me, the film became much more than that. You know, it became an immigrant story.

As these members of the group were forced to flee, after members were killed moving from safe house to safe house fearing for their lives, continuing to get death threats, it became a story of rising nationalism in Europe. It became a story of trauma¹⁰. And so I think I started out making one film, and then I ended up making something that was much different as well.

MARTIN: Well, I'll tell you, Matthew, one of the things that's really striking about the film, it's beautifully shot, but it's very hard to watch. I'm not going to lie to you. I mean, you are seeing people at their worst doing awful things to other people. And I wondered how you thought about how much to show.

HEINEMAN: I think for me, using the footage from RBSS showing life inside the caliphate, showing life inside the capital of ISIS, using ISIS's footage as well, you know, we combed through hundreds and hundreds of hours of footage, it was important to me to show the horrors that the citizens of Raqqa live with every single day. The fear of walking outside, the trauma of walking into your town square and seeing heads on fences.

And so for me to shy away from that violence would be, you know, not doing justice to what they deal with every single day. On the other hand, I didn't want people to run out of movie theaters because it was so unbearable¹¹. And so it is very much a balancing act between those two things. Every single frame, every single moment, every single scene was discerned and argued about to try to find that balance.

MARTIN: Abdalaziz, what about you? I have to say that it is very difficult to watch. And one of the most difficult scenes is that one of the fathers of one of the members of the group was executed publicly as part of this propaganda video to show, you know, what happens to people who fight against, you know, ISIS. And the son watches this, his own father being murdered in this way. And I wanted to know for you, I mean, can you watch this film? And how do you deal with that?

ALHAMZA: We've been doing this work for almost three years, so we used to watch these kind of execution videos trying to follow up if there is any mistake or anything. And it was so hard to watch the execution videos of our colleagues, our friends, our family members. It was like completely different with Hamud (ph) for him. He kept saying that working the video gives him power to complete. So for him, he watched a video two or three times weekly to keep doing that work.

MARTIN: As we mentioned earlier, coalition forces do seem to be moving closer to taking the city back from ISIS control. Abdalaziz, I wanted to know what are your hopes? I mean, do you hope that if you and I speak this time next year, do you hope to be back home? I mean, what's your hope for the future?

ALHAMZA: Yeah, for sure. Like, I hope one day that I'll be able to go home, but it sounds so hard. As you mentioned, the international coalitions¹² started a battle to defeat ISIS, but the main thing that I want to mention that the international coalition killed civilians¹³ this year in Raqqa, way more than ISIS did. So we hope that the coalition that will defeat ISIS will do better than that. So I hope other things will be fixed¹⁴, not only in Raqqa and Syria and everywhere. And they will be able to go back home.

MARTIN: And what do you think your job will be then?

ALHAMZA: I don't know. So far, maybe like a bartender.

MARTIN: Oh, OK. Abdalaziz Alhamza is a Syrian journalist and activist⁶. He and his fellow citizen journalists with Raqqa Is Being Slaughtered Silently are the focus of a new documentary called "City Of Ghosts," which is out this week. Matthew Heineman is the film's director. They were both kind enough to join us from our studios at NPR West in Culver City, Calif. Thank you both so much for speaking with us.

ALHAMZA: Thanks for having us.

HEINEMAN: Thanks for having us.

1 coalition   

n.结合体，同盟，结合，联合

参考例句：

• The several parties formed a coalition.这几个政党组成了政治联盟。
• Coalition forces take great care to avoid civilian casualties.联盟军队竭尽全力避免造成平民伤亡。

2 counteract   

vt.对…起反作用，对抗，抵消

参考例句：

• The doctor gave him some medicine to counteract the effect of the poison.医生给他些药解毒。
• Our work calls for mutual support.We shouldn't counteract each other's efforts.工作要互相支持，不要互相拆台。

3 slaughtered   

v.屠杀，杀戮，屠宰( slaughter的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• The invading army slaughtered a lot of people. 侵略军杀了许多人。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Hundreds of innocent civilians were cruelly slaughtered. 数百名无辜平民遭残杀。 来自《简明英汉词典》

4 atrocities   

n.邪恶，暴行( atrocity的名词复数 )；滔天大罪

参考例句：

• They were guilty of the most barbarous and inhuman atrocities. 他们犯有最野蛮、最灭绝人性的残暴罪行。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The enemy's atrocities made one boil with anger. 敌人的暴行令人发指。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》

5 courageous   

adj.勇敢的，有胆量的

参考例句：

• We all honour courageous people.我们都尊重勇敢的人。
• He was roused to action by courageous words.豪言壮语促使他奋起行动。

6 activist   

n.活动分子，积极分子

参考例句：

• He's been a trade union activist for many years.多年来他一直是工会的积极分子。
• He is a social activist in our factory.他是我厂的社会活动积极分子。

7 activists   

n.（政治活动的）积极分子，活动家( activist的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• His research work was attacked by animal rights activists . 他的研究受到了动物权益维护者的抨击。
• Party activists with lower middle class pedigrees are numerous. 党的激进分子中有很多出身于中产阶级下层。 来自《简明英汉词典》

8 decided   

adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的

参考例句：

• This gave them a decided advantage over their opponents.这使他们比对手具有明显的优势。
• There is a decided difference between British and Chinese way of greeting.英国人和中国人打招呼的方式有很明显的区别。

9 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。

10 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。

11 unbearable   

adj.不能容忍的；忍受不住的

参考例句：

• It is unbearable to be always on thorns.老是处于焦虑不安的情况中是受不了的。
• The more he thought of it the more unbearable it became.他越想越觉得无法忍受。

12 coalitions   

结合体，同盟( coalition的名词复数 )； （两党或多党）联合政府

参考例句：

• History testifies to the ineptitude of coalitions in waging war. 历史昭示我们，多数国家联合作战，其进行甚为困难。
• All the coalitions in history have disintegrated sooner or later. 历史上任何联盟迟早都垮台了。

13 civilians   

平民，百姓( civilian的名词复数 )； 老百姓

参考例句：

• the bloody massacre of innocent civilians 对无辜平民的血腥屠杀
• At least 300 civilians are unaccounted for after the bombing raids. 遭轰炸袭击之后，至少有300名平民下落不明。

14 fixed   

adj.固定的，不变的，准备好的；(计算机)固定的

参考例句：

• Have you two fixed on a date for the wedding yet?你们俩选定婚期了吗？
• Once the aim is fixed,we should not change it arbitrarily.目标一旦确定，我们就不应该随意改变。