The Paper's reporter Gao Dan
The sudden outbreak of the Ebola epidemic in the small West African country of Kabalia, Chinese medical workers went to Africa to carry out epidemic prevention and treatment work, Zheng Shupeng (Luo Jin), a member of the Chinese anti-epidemic medical team assisting Kabaria, and He Huan (Mao Xiaotong), an investigative journalist and freelance writer, risked their lives to enter the epidemic center controlled by the rebels...
In order to enhance the watchability of the series, the TV series "Ebola Front" has two main lines, there are clashes between government forces and rebels, and a legendary story line of diamond smuggling is also arranged, which is interspersed with the daily treatment of medical teams.
Poster of Ebola Frontline
Like many films like plagues and disasters, Ebola Frontline has a true story archetype: taking the 2014 Chinese medical team to many countries in West Africa to participate in the fight against the Ebola haemorrhagic fever epidemic as the core prototype, and also condensing and integrating various stories of China's medical aid to Africa for decades.
The drama will be broadcast on Zhejiang Satellite TV and Beijing Satellite TV at 19:30 every day from December 8, and Tencent Video, iQiyi and Youku will be broadcast at 22:00 every day.
Stills from Ebola Front
Three years of preparation: field interviews, real presentations
According to general director Yang Wenjun, "Ebola Frontline" is a story about a community of destiny, but also to present everyone's choices. In order to make everyone's story solid enough, the script was made for more than three years, interviewing experts and witnesses in various medical and health fields, accumulating hundreds of hours of interview materials and nearly 10 million words of interview records, especially such a true story, which needs to be "armed to the details".
For example, in the scene about masks, viewers who have experienced the new crown epidemic may feel that it is strange not to wear masks in the face of infectious diseases. But historically, West Africa didn't have as many medical supplies, and Ebola, though a potent infectious disease, was transmitted through contact, not through droplets. So there are a lot of scenes in the play that make everyone sweat without wearing a mask. At the same time, the play involves the use of intraocular fluid from the eye, women's childbirth, surgery and other plots, and also goes through the process of "script interview - writing - word-for-word proofreading by relevant professional experts - finalization", and the shooting scene also has the guidance of local doctors.
In order to gain an in-depth understanding of the work and life of the Chinese medical team aiding Africa, the main creators of "Ebola Frontline" formed an inspection team to go to Africa to collect wind, and successively went to Sierra Leone and Tanzania to investigate local markets, hospitals, villages, fishing ports, streets and alleys, medical and health, traditional culture, customs and customs, natural features and other aspects. One of the highlights of the expedition is the China-Cypriot Friendship Hospital on the outskirts of Freetown, the capital of Sierra Leone, where the Chinese medical team to aid the Fight against the Ebola epidemic was stationed in 2014, and five years later, the traces left by the fight against the Ebola epidemic are still traceable, including traces of temporary isolation and related posters.
The expedition team also visited the Biosafety Level III Laboratory (P3 Laboratory), a project built with Chinese assistance during the Ebola outbreak. Kan Biao of the CDC of the National Center for Disease Control and Prevention of China is in charge here, and during the investigation, he also introduced the working process of the P3 laboratory to the inspection team in detail, and led the inspection team to watch the testing process of the P3 laboratory through the glass window.
Chief producer Mao Yi also introduced that the art construction and art design of the P3 and P4 laboratories related to the virus in the play are one-to-one real restoration: "The laboratories of P3 and P4 are all high standards in terms of water, gas, waste, etc., and the various equipment and systems that are basically visible to the naked eye are all true, including the aerosol generated by the disinfection spray system, which is also true, not made of special effects." ”
Ebola Haemorrhagic Fever: A Cruel Passage Not as a "Spectacle"
Although we have suffered from the new crown virus and are no strangers to infectious diseases, it may still be difficult to imagine the horrors of the Ebola haemorrhagic fever outbreak.
People infected with Ebola haemorrhagic fever will have a severe fever and vomit, and the vomit is mixed with blood and organ fragments, and in severe cases, they will even melt all over the body and become a "blood corpse", and the mortality rate of Ebola infected people ranges from 50% to 90%, and the fastest can die within one day after infection.
In "Ebola Frontline", the horror of Ebola haemorrhagic fever is also presented head-on: a medical worker who went to help Africa was immediately stunned by the blood vomited by an infected person, and in the epidemic area, following the camera, he will face a "frontal critical attack" mixed with blood mixed with visceral fragments at any time. Probably nothing is more moving than the misery caused by the landing of such a natural disaster on a human being: in Chernobyl, a young firefighter, who is turned into a slimy, tragically dead zombie because he is closest to the radiation core, is taken out as an almost spectacle bridge; and when it comes to Ebola, infected people almost universally have bleeding symptoms that are extremely prone to physical discomfort.
The pathogenesis of the Ebola outbreak is described in Blood Plague: "Monet leaned down, his head resting on his knees, and with a spasmodic moan, a huge amount of blood gushed out of his stomach, spilled on the ground, he lost consciousness, and fell forward to the ground." All that could be heard in the room was the choking in his throat, and he was unconscious, but still continued to vomit blood and black matter. Then there was the sound of the sheet tearing, it was the large intestine completely open, and blood spurted outward from the anus. The blood was mixed with intestinal wall tissue, and he excreted his own internal organs. The intestinal wall tissue falls off and is excreted with a large amount of blood. ”
According to people who have really participated in the rescue work, the fourth-level virus is a very high-level, new virus type, and the content presented in the play is a true embodiment of the reaction of people who have just been exposed to the virus - everyone will not be so fearless, first of all, fear.
Working photo of "Ebola Frontline"
From Things to People: The True Story of the "War Epidemic"
Mao Yi, chief producer, said: "2018 is the 55th anniversary of China's medical aid to Africa, there is a very good documentary called "Medical Road Without Boundaries", which shows the details of China's medical aid to Africa in a panoramic way, and one of the episodes is about the core event of the 2014 aid to Africa to fight the Ebola epidemic. I think that the long river of nearly 60 years must have a lot of touching and profound deeds, and it will also be a very tense story, which may form a linkage of points and lines, which was my original idea at that time. ”
Regarding the setting of the story, the general director Yang Wenjun introduced: "One is a story line related to diamond smuggling, and the other is a life-saving line, which sounds very intense and tense, but in fact, on the side of the medical team and the testing team, it may not be as everyone thinks, every day is the treatment of the head breaking blood flow, it is a lot of rules, such as when our medical team first arrived, because the local implementation is another set of medical systems, not allowed to treat patients and diagnosis and treatment immediately, can only stay and watch." I think it is precisely these details and stories that lurk under the surface of our cognition that have more moving power. ”
There is a local doctor named Qasm in the play, and this African doctor is also the prototype character of "Ebola Front" Cao Guang really encountered when he was assisting in Guinea. Cao Guang said: "My partner doctor is called Qasm, and he eventually died because of Ebola. You can see in the film that everyone's clothes are numbered, my number is 3481, and in the play it is 3281. Including the patient's bed number has also been restored, and the first patient to die when we came to Guinea is consistent with the play, also in bed 18. Of course, there may be no difference between 18 beds and 10 beds for many viewers, but this number is a very sensitive number for me. ”
Luo Jin plays Zheng Shupeng and Mao Xiaotong plays He Huan
In the play, the doctor played by Luo Jin needs to wear protective clothing for a long time, and the probe lens is used to vividly present the detailed state of the medical team members behind the thick protective clothing sweating and pores, and the audience can also intuitively experience the sweltering heat, and at the same time, the camera is also used to build the first perspective, so that every audience can feel the tense atmosphere of the plot.
Editor-in-charge: Cheng Yu
Proofreader: Yijia Xu