美国国家公共电台 NPR A Boy Grows Up Fast On The Streets Of Beirut In The Dickensian 'Capernaum'

 

ARI SHAPIRO, HOST:

A little boy takes his parents to court in the new film "Capernaum." In Lebanon, that title means chaos¹, and critic Bob Mondello says that's an accurate description of the world the boy lives in.

BOB MONDELLO, BYLINE²: Zain is skinny, sad-eyed and about 12 years old, though he's so tiny he could pass for 8. He's running and playing with other kids in the streets of Beirut under the opening credits. But once those credits are done, we see him being led past TV reporters into a courtroom. He barely comes up to the waist of the soldier who's brought him. He looks firmly at the judge, who asks him why he's here.

(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "CAPERNAUM")

ZAIN AL RAFEEA: (As Zain, foreign language spoken).

MONDELLO: I want to sue my parents.

(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "CAPERNAUM")

ELIAS KHOURY: (As judge, foreign language spoken).

MONDELLO: Why do you want to sue your parents, asks the judge.

(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "CAPERNAUM")

AL RAFEEA: (As Zain, foreign language spoken).

MONDELLO: Because I was born, an indictment³ his mother and father across the courtroom absorb as the film flashes back to their home life, if you can call it that, crammed⁴ into a crumbling⁵ slum apartment where opiates are dissolved just inches from the mattress⁶ where half a dozen kids lie sleeping.

Zain does what he can to protect his siblings⁷. He's tough and streetwise despite his size. But when he can't keep his folks from sending off his 11-year-old sister to be married to the landlord, he leaves to live in the streets and look for work in a garish⁸ seaside amusement park where he meets a pink and blue costumed cockroach⁹ man who claims to be Spider-Man's cousin and an Ethiopian cleaning lady with a baby but no immigration papers. If he'll keep the baby safe, she decides, she'll give Zain shelter, a home away from home.

(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "CAPERNAUM")

YORDANOS SHIFERAW: (As Rahil) Bravo, Zain.

(SOUNDBITE OF BABY COOING)

SHIFERAW: (As Rahil, laughter).

MONDELLO: Had Charles Dickens lived in modern-day Beirut, he might have penned a story like "Capernaum" - feisty, resourceful kid stealing food for his adopted family, caring for an infant as life takes cataclysmic turns involving human traffickers, scam artists, cops. Nadine Labaki has written and directed a couple of lovely small films but nothing suggesting she would make an epic¹⁰ like this or shepherd a first-timer like her young star Zain Al Rafeea to such an accomplished¹¹ performance.

(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "CAPERNAUM")

AL RAFEEA: (As Zain, foreign language spoken).

MONDELLO: That his name, Zain, is the name of his character is very much the point. All her actors are nonprofessionals cast because their lives resemble those of the folks in the story she's crafted. They don't just play their parts; they've lived them. On-screen they're surrounded by images that are both tender and wrenching¹² - a mother in jail squeezing her breast milk onto the floor, sobbing¹³ to her absent infant that she's sorry, a bedtime that's a tangle¹⁴ of children's arms and legs, bird's-eye shots of a shantytown stretching for miles. Capernaum - chaos - and at its center this astonishing child Zain, who is profane¹⁵, protective, profoundly compelling, a Dickensian hero in a saga¹⁶ that defies all odds¹⁷ and finds hope in kids doing what they can in a hell made by adults. I'm Bob Mondello.

(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)

1 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。

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 indictment   

n.起诉；诉状

参考例句：

• He handed up the indictment to the supreme court.他把起诉书送交最高法院。
• They issued an indictment against them.他们起诉了他们。

4 crammed   

adj.塞满的，挤满的；大口地吃；快速贪婪地吃v.把…塞满；填入；临时抱佛脚( cram的过去式)

参考例句：

• He crammed eight people into his car. 他往他的车里硬塞进八个人。
• All the shelves were crammed with books. 所有的架子上都堆满了书。

5 crumbling   

adj.摇摇欲坠的

参考例句：

• an old house with crumbling plaster and a leaking roof 一所灰泥剥落、屋顶漏水的老房子
• The boat was tied up alongside a crumbling limestone jetty. 这条船停泊在一个摇摇欲坠的石灰岩码头边。

6 mattress   

n.床垫，床褥

参考例句：

• The straw mattress needs to be aired.草垫子该晾一晾了。
• The new mattress I bought sags in the middle.我买的新床垫中间陷了下去。

7 siblings   

n.兄弟，姐妹( sibling的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• A triplet sleeps amongst its two siblings. 一个三胞胎睡在其两个同胞之间。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• She has no way of tracking the donor or her half-siblings down. 她没办法找到那个捐精者或她的兄弟姐妹。 来自时文部分

8 garish   

adj.华丽而俗气的，华而不实的

参考例句：

• This colour is bright but not garish.这颜色艳而不俗。
• They climbed the garish purple-carpeted stairs.他们登上铺着俗艳的紫色地毯的楼梯。

9 cockroach   

n.蟑螂

参考例句：

• A cockroach can live several weeks with its head off.蟑螂在头被切掉后仍能活好几个星期。
• She screamed when she found a cockroach in her bed.她在床上找到一只蟑螂时大声尖叫。

10 epic   

n.史诗，叙事诗；adj.史诗般的，壮丽的

参考例句：

• I gave up my epic and wrote this little tale instead.我放弃了写叙事诗，而写了这个小故事。
• They held a banquet of epic proportions.他们举行了盛大的宴会。

11 accomplished   

adj.有才艺的；有造诣的；达到了的

参考例句：

• Thanks to your help,we accomplished the task ahead of schedule.亏得你们帮忙,我们才提前完成了任务。
• Removal of excess heat is accomplished by means of a radiator.通过散热器完成多余热量的排出。

12 wrenching   

n.修截苗根，苗木铲根（铲根时苗木不起土或部分起土）v.（猛力地）扭( wrench的现在分词 )；扭伤；使感到痛苦；使悲痛

参考例句：

• China has been through a wrenching series of changes and experiments. 中国经历了一系列艰苦的变革和试验。 来自辞典例句
• A cold gust swept across her exposed breast, wrenching her back to reality. 一股寒气打击她的敞开的胸膛，把她从梦幻的境地中带了回来。 来自汉英文学 - 家（1-26） - 家（1-26）

13 sobbing   

<主方>Ⅰ adj.湿透的

参考例句：

• I heard a child sobbing loudly. 我听见有个孩子在呜呜地哭。
• Her eyes were red with recent sobbing. 她的眼睛因刚哭过而发红。

14 tangle   

n.纠缠；缠结；混乱；v.(使)缠绕；变乱

参考例句：

• I shouldn't tangle with Peter.He is bigger than me.我不应该与彼特吵架。他的块头比我大。
• If I were you, I wouldn't tangle with them.我要是你，我就不跟他们争吵。

15 profane   

adj.亵神的，亵渎的；vt.亵渎，玷污

参考例句：

• He doesn't dare to profane the name of God.他不敢亵渎上帝之名。
• His profane language annoyed us.他亵渎的言语激怒了我们。

16 saga   

n.(尤指中世纪北欧海盗的)故事，英雄传奇

参考例句：

• The saga of Flight 19 is probably the most repeated story about the Bermuda Triangle.飞行19中队的传说或许是有关百慕大三角最重复的故事。
• The novel depicts the saga of a family.小说描绘了一个家族的传奇故事。

17 odds   

n.让步，机率，可能性，比率；胜败优劣之别

参考例句：

• The odds are 5 to 1 that she will win.她获胜的机会是五比一。
• Do you know the odds of winning the lottery once?你知道赢得一次彩票的几率多大吗？