Text/Nanke Documentary
Editor/Nan Ke Documentary
<<——Preamble——>>
"The most helpless moment for human beings is when they are faced with natural disasters, and the sense of powerlessness in the face of force majeure will reshape people's hearts"!
As far as nature is concerned, we human beings are undoubtedly very weak existences, even in the modern era of advanced technology, we rarely have successful cases against nature, and nature can destroy the cities and towns we have worked so hard to build with the touch of a finger.
Although we human beings are weak, we have the most tenacious characteristics, and disasters have tempered us again and again, and guarded them in the achievements of our civilization!
<< -- the helplessness of natural disasters -- >>
On July 4, 2016, film director Abbas Kiarostami died of cancer in Paris at the age of 76.
For the average moviegoer, Abbas Kiarostami is a bit unfamiliar.
However, this film director from Tehran, the capital of Iran, was known as a rare master in the world film industry during his lifetime.
Many famous film directors have high praise for him, because his films have a strong personal style, and can express profound concepts with simple pictures and simple language.
Godard once said, "Cinema begins with Griffith and ends with Abbas." Kurosawa even used the word "incomparable" to praise the work of Abbas Kiarostami.
It is these halos that make his departure even more sad, and some even lament that the fall of Abbas Kiarostami, a superstar, may be the end of the new wave of Iranian cinema.
Today's disaster film "Growing and Flowing" is the work of Abbas Kiarostami, which won the Rossellini Humanitarianism Award and the Caméra d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival.
On June 21, 1990, a magnitude 7.3 earthquake struck the Caspian Sea coast in northwestern Iran, the most devastating earthquake ever recorded in Iran.
"Where Is My Friend's Home" was filmed in the hardest-hit area of the earthquake, and Abbas Kiarostami decided to drive back to the post-earthquake mountains because he was worried about the safety of the children who starred in the film, and the whole process was made into a film that blended documentary and feature films, that is, "Growing and Growing".
In Abbas Kiarostami's lens, how do the Iranian people face life after the disaster?
The "father" drove his young son on the highway, and along the way, the "father" replied to the "son's" "100,000 whys" one after another. The destination of their trip was the filming location of Iran's Kogail's film "Where Is My Friend's Home?"
Iran is located at the transition point between the European and Asian tectonic plates, and the frequent geological activity between the tectonic plates has made Iran a country prone to earthquakes. According to incomplete statistics, since the sixties of the last century alone, dozens of strong earthquakes have occurred here.
Among them, the 7.3 magnitude earthquake that occurred on June 21, 1990 caused very heavy damage.
Among the provinces in northern Iran affected by the earthquake, the two provinces of Zanjan and Gillan, known as Iran's "breadbaskets", were the hardest. Dozens of towns and villages in Zanjan province have been razed to the ground or reduced to rubble, with residents of Abu Bol and Buyin killed or injured, and several towns and villages in Gilan province have been devastated.
This disaster also befell the place where the cute actor boy in the movie "Where is My Friend's Home" lived, and the earthquake destroyed almost everything in the area. That little boy is the "friend" in the mouth of the "son".
Black flags were hung everywhere in the earthquake-stricken areas, and the whole of Iran was clouded by the disaster, and the words "terrible" and "catastrophic" appeared in the newspapers.
The father and son walked along the highway, which was lined with endless meadows, farmland, and cement towers that stood tall in the face of a powerful earthquake. Here, there is no sight to be seen in connection with the "catastrophe".
After the "son" got out of the car to urinate, he also picked up a ladybug and wanted to take it home to raise. In the blink of an eye, the "son" pulled the "father" to talk about the football match that day, arguing whether it was Argentina vs. Brazil or Britain vs. Brazil, the day of the earthquake, which happened to be during the World Cup in Italy.
On the childish face of the "son", there is only innocence and childlike play, which is not different from the expressions of the children in Degas's famous oil painting "Dance Studio", which is full of innocence, as if no earthquake had happened.
<< - the brilliance of human nature - >>
As the car pulls off the highway and bumps into the surrounding villages, the breath of disaster looms.
The village is full of rubble, some people are standing on it and digging, maybe the bodies of their loved ones, maybe the traces of family members, some people sitting on the rubble and crying quietly, some people sitting on the side of the road looking sluggish, and more people are picking up items that have not been destroyed by the earthquake in the rubble and rubble, ready to rebuild their own small homes......
Even in this environment, the music never stops, and the cars drive through the village, accompanied by Persian music with unknown lyrics. This music is not an auxiliary technique used by the director in the later stage, but is played spontaneously by people at the scene in the disaster area.
Is it mourning music to commemorate the loss of life, or is it music for the living to cheer themselves up? But at this moment, the audience can understand that the complex emotions in the music are mourning and blessings.
In the aftermath of a 7.3 magnitude earthquake, "death", "sadness", and "darkness" are bound to be the main tone of the grand narrative, but it makes us look more like bystanders of life. "Life and Flow" takes us into a more microcosm of the world, the village and the people in the village after the earthquake, and restores the original face of life.
Abbas Kiarostami's shots are still calm, like a babbling stream, like a philosophical lesson about life and death. And his compassion for the disaster is conveyed to the audience's heart through the plain lens language, and the so-called moisturizing things silently is probably nothing more than that.
After the earthquake, the road to the filming location of "Where Is My Friend's Home" was not easy to walk, on the one hand, the highway was closed from time to time to give way to rescue vehicles. On the other hand, most of the surrounding villages that are landmarks have been reduced to rubble.
Occasionally, the house that has survived is also like an island after this catastrophe, full of loneliness and sadness in the empty panoramic shot.
The sad faces were not magnified, but interspersed with the crowd of "fathers" asking for directions, some with bandages wrapped around their injured limbs, some with their heads wrapped, some with dull eyes, and some with their faces covered and crying······
However, optimism and hope lie precisely in these villagers. The close-up shot was given to the hand of the man wrapped in the bandage, and a small heart was painted on the white bandage, this warm and soft moment touched many people.
Children are the fastest to get rid of the catastrophic mood. The baby, who lost both parents in the earthquake, showed a sweet smile when he was held in his arms by his "father".
The "son" did not understand what the earthquake meant, and he only found the joy of treasure hunting in the ruins, only to see him holding a large colored rooster porcelain, happily showing off the "treasure trophies" to his father.
We don't know exactly what kind of disaster this crippled big rooster porcelain and its owner went through, but it still took on the duty of delivering happiness after suffering such a severe blow.
A few little girls were washing clothes by the river, and they chatted while washing, chatting about the excitement and playing a game of splashing water. Their laughter mingled with the sound of the babbling stream, playing the song of life in the village.
No one noticed the sadness on the face of the woman who was washing clothes in the distance, but the "son" in "Treasure Hunt" inadvertently caught a glimpse of it, and after learning of the death of the woman's child, he comforted the woman in his own way: "Your dead child must be happy now, because she doesn't have to do her homework." ”
The movie is interspersed with records and fiction, so I have no way to judge whether this sentence is the expression of the true feelings of the little actor who plays the "son", or the line setting, but at this moment, I put myself in the place of the woman who lost her child, and I was really affected by this innocent sentence.
When comfort comes, when adults comfort others, they show more restraint.
Earthquakes, it's hell····· But you got through it.
A short conversation, but behind it is a heavy story and emotion.
And those who escaped death also gained a new understanding after the disaster: "People often find the value of youth when they are old, and they cherish the beauty of life when they are about to die. ”
So a young couple held a wedding on the ruins the day after the earthquake.
Coming out of the disaster as soon as possible, trying to rebuild their homes and start their lives again, the Iranian villagers in Abbas Kiarostami's lens tell us the truth of life and struggle.
<<·——Conclusion——·>>
Until the end of the film, the "son's" friend was still not found.
The father and son's car started again, and they drove into the steep hill and into the mountain sun. The film's footage spreads as the ruins and ruins become smaller and smaller.
One day, the lives of people in those disaster areas will be like this picture, the sadness is getting lighter and the sunshine is getting stronger and stronger
Milan Kundera said: "It's a world where it's fashionable to leave, but we're not good at saying goodbye. ”
Sometimes it can only be clumsily given a back, often used to show the gesture of leaving, which slowly solidifies and becomes a memory, a trace, a node of time.
Many memory traces are piled up into our lives, memories, pains and joys, and the calamities and sorrows will always pass. What grows and flows is always a peaceful life.