美国国家公共电台 NPR A Refugee Family Takes Viewers On A Years-Long Escape In 'Midnight Traveler'

 

MICHEL MARTIN, HOST:

Finally today, we hear stories about immigration and refugees all the time in the news, but we often don't get to go deeper to understand why people become refugees, why they leave everything they know to embark¹ on dangerous journeys, especially with kids involved. Two filmmakers, Hassan Fazili and Fatima Hussaini, made a film that answers those questions, and it's personal.

Fazili and Hussaini were filmmakers in Afghanistan until they were threatened by the Taliban. They decided² to escape to Tajikistan with their two young daughters. There, the family applied³ for asylum⁴ in Australia. When that application was denied, they faced a difficult choice - go back to Afghanistan and hope for the best or seek refuge in Europe. They chose the latter, and in the process, decided to turn their cameras on themselves and their two girls.

Their new film, "Midnight Traveler," documents every step of that journey from Afghanistan to Hungary - discrimination, death threats and confusing immigration systems, as well as the love and faith that kept them going. Now, some people might question why you would want to make a film while fleeing for your life. But reflecting on the experience, Fazili says making the film helped him get through the ordeal⁵. This is his voice. We provided the voiceover.

HASSAN FAZILI: (Through interpreter) It was this film that gave me hope. It was this film that gave me the feeling of being alive. Shooting this film gave me the feeling that one day, I'd succeed. One day, the problems would end. One day, we'll arrive at last.

MARTIN: The film was shot using the family's cell phone cameras over the course of three years. Filmmaker Emelie Mahdavian coordinated⁶ with the family to get the footage and edit it to its final form. We asked her to tell us more about the film, and I started by asking how she met the family.

EMELIE MAHDAVIAN: I wrote my dissertation⁷ on Tajikistan and made a film in Tajikistan before this, so I had this rather specific community of filmmakers that I was tapped into. And I met them through that community. And I was helping⁸ with writing letters to try to support them in receiving protection without traveling on this migrant route. And then it became clear they weren't going to receive protection, and I agreed to help producing what would turn out to be this film documenting their experience as migrants.

MARTIN: I understand that the technique of it is not the most important thing about it. But it is still remarkable⁹ that in the midst of all of this, they were able to film what they were going through and get the film out. I mean, is there anything you can tell us about that? Like, how did they do it?

MAHDAVIAN: Yeah, so there's two things there. The first is, a lot of people wonder, well, you know, you're fleeing for your life. How do you have time to make a film? And the reality, unfortunately, is that fleeing for your life involves a lot of being stuck in camps and waiting. And for people who are used to working, working hard, having normal lives, being asked to sit somewhere for 12 months with nothing to do in a small room in really cramped¹⁰ quarters with other families close to you - it's very hard to actually do nothing. So although there are harrowing moments of flight and moments where they're having immediate¹¹ peril¹² that they're dealing¹³ with, in a lot of cases, they were actually keeping themselves occupied and sane¹⁴ by making this film.

As far as the logistics, what we did was in each country they would go through, I arranged a contact to meet them. And that contact would bring a laptop and a hard drive, and they would copy all of the footage that they had shot to date off onto that hard drive, and the contact would mail it to me. So that way, they didn't have to deal with, you know, trying to manage that themselves. They just had to meet someone.

MARTIN: A lot of the shots are of the girls, the daughters, playing, trying to explore their surroundings, especially at the refugee camps in Bulgaria. And there's another in Serbia. There have been sort of other films that explore, you know, parents trying to give their children a sense of the beauty of the world, even in the midst of, you know, ugly circumstances. What struck you about that?

MAHDAVIAN: Well, so I was speaking with them as they were going through the experience and then often receiving the footage and going through it months later because there was hundreds of hours to go through. It took a lot of time. And what I found was that while there were these moments of high drama, it was, as you said, punctuated¹⁵ by a lot of time of trying to keep normalcy for their family.

And I felt like by allowing this family to shoot the story themselves - you know, frame their lives and tell their own story - what we discover is the way in which, amidst this kind of tension and anxiety of the migrant experience, there's also still the possibility for humor and joy and a much more diverse and rich humanity to emerge when we are in the hands of this family rather than in the hands of an outsider who's coming and looking for a quick story.

MARTIN: There's one scene that's just - it's hard to watch, even though you're not seeing sort of overt¹⁶ ugliness. It's when the - I think, like, this is when they're in Bulgaria. And there are anti-immigrant marches, anti-refugee marches in the streets. And there are - I mean, you can hear the chanting in the background, and you can just - you know, despite the best efforts, the children are hearing this, and they're affected¹⁷ by it, and it's terrifying.

(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "MIDNIGHT TRAVELER")

UNIDENTIFIED PROTESTERS: (Chanting in foreign language).

MAHDAVIAN: Yeah. The camp that the family is staying in Bulgaria is put on lockdown, and there's police guarding them, and they're told they can't leave their room. And meanwhile, outside, there's a protest, an anti-immigrant protest that begins. And so we see what it's like to be in a space on lockdown as the shouting and the angry protest outside grows larger and larger and eventually escalates¹⁸ into a fight.

(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "MIDNIGHT TRAVELER")

UNIDENTIFIED CROWD: (Unintelligible).

MAHDAVIAN: The children are, you know, always living in one room, sometimes sharing that room with even other families, so there's really no protecting your children from the things that are going on in your lives, whether that's that you as parents are fighting because you're anxious or whether that's threats that are coming from the outside. There's a moment involving threats from the smugglers that they're with. As you say, there are these protests. There's a time that they're attacked when they're out in the streets.

And, you know, the children are with them in all of those moments, and they're hearing and seeing everything. And I think that is one of the most awful elements of this journey is that it's just very difficult to protect your children from the trauma¹⁹ of what this journey is.

MARTIN: Yeah. Well, a bit of a spoiler alert, but not a big one. I mean, the film ends in Hungary, where their asylum case was considered legitimate²⁰. But can you tell us, you know, where they are now? I mean, there's a reason obviously that we're speaking to you...

MAHDAVIAN: Right.

MARTIN: ...And not to them.

MAHDAVIAN: They're in Germany. They have a pending²¹ case to be allowed to apply for asylum in Germany. And so they're still in limbo²². They fled Afghanistan in 2015. And, you know, it's now 2019, and they still don't know for sure where they're going to live long-term. And I think that that longevity²³ of time waiting in that kind of cumulative²⁴ anxiety is one of the really difficult things about the migrant experience.

MARTIN: And before we let you go, you know, obviously, you know this area of the world very well, and you obviously, you know, move easily and comfortably all over the world. But for people who don't, what would you want them to know, either about this story or about this family?

MAHDAVIAN: Well, you know, when we were editing the film, that was one of my main jobs - was to try to think across the cultures and try to make sure that the film was going to be something that a person from, say, America or Europe could just throw themselves into without feeling that they needed a big education in the history of Central Asian politics. And at the same time, we wanted to keep it true to the experience of people from that region. And so that was a balancing act that we were dealing with as we worked on it.

And what we were hoping is that, rather than focusing on the kind of binary²⁵ political rhetoric²⁶ that right now tends to proliferate²⁷, that people could just throw themselves into being with this family, experiencing their journey as a family and not necessarily, you know, having to do a lot of work to think about the political history or the geography that inform the journey.

MARTIN: Does it ever worry you, though, that the only people who will be attracted to this film are people who are sympathetic to the families like this anyway? I mean, because, you know, we hear...

MAHDAVIAN: Yeah.

MARTIN: ...The rhetoric around immigration in most places, as we see in the film - it's not just in the United States - that many people - not all people, but many people - are very hostile to immigrants and refugees right now...

MAHDAVIAN: Yeah.

MARTIN: ...And that part of what this film does is it stands up for the individuality of each person, the dignity of each person and to say that each person has a story which deserves to be heard.

MAHDAVIAN: Yeah.

MARTIN: And I just wonder if there's any part of you that - you're not preaching. You're telling a story.

MAHDAVIAN: (Laughter).

MARTIN: But is there any part of you that feels like I'm preaching to the choir²⁸ here? The only people who are going to watch is about people who already care.

MAHDAVIAN: Well, OK. So I live in very rural Idaho, so I actually live amidst a much more conservative community. So I - when I was editing, I think about how they would receive it. And that's part of why it was important to me to not frame their story in advance with politics but to allow their story to stand on its own.

And what I found in - at least in speaking to my friends and neighbors - is that people are open to being on a journey with somebody. They appreciate not being preached to first. And I think that's what allows the film to open a conversation. We aren't beginning first with that type of argument or political position we really are just trying to allow people to know what this journey is like.

MARTIN: That was Emelie Mahdavian talking to us from our bureau in New York. She's the editor and writer of the new film "Midnight Traveler." The film was shot by Hassan Fazili and his family during their three-year journey from Afghanistan to Hungary. Emelie, thanks so much for joining us.

MAHDAVIAN: Thank you for having me.

1 embark   

vi.乘船，着手，从事，上飞机

参考例句：

• He is about to embark on a new business venture.他就要开始新的商业冒险活动。
• Many people embark for Europe at New York harbor.许多人在纽约港乘船去欧洲。

2 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。

3 applied   

adj.应用的；v.应用，适用

参考例句：

• She plans to take a course in applied linguistics.她打算学习应用语言学课程。
• This cream is best applied to the face at night.这种乳霜最好晚上擦脸用。

4 asylum   

n.避难所，庇护所，避难

参考例句：

• The people ask for political asylum.人们请求政治避难。
• Having sought asylum in the West for many years,they were eventually granted it.他们最终获得了在西方寻求多年的避难权。

5 ordeal   

n.苦难经历，（尤指对品格、耐力的）严峻考验

参考例句：

• She managed to keep her sanity throughout the ordeal.在那场磨难中她始终保持神志正常。
• Being lost in the wilderness for a week was an ordeal for me.在荒野里迷路一星期对我来说真是一场磨难。

6 coordinated   

adj.协调的

参考例句：

• The sound has to be coordinated with the picture. 声音必须和画面协调一致。
• The numerous existing statutes are complicated and poorly coordinated. 目前繁多的法令既十分复杂又缺乏快调。 来自英汉非文学 - 环境法 - 环境法

7 dissertation   

n.（博士学位）论文，学术演讲，专题论文

参考例句：

• He is currently writing a dissertation on the Somali civil war.他目前正在写一篇关于索马里内战的论文。
• He was involved in writing his doctoral dissertation.他在聚精会神地写他的博士论文。

8 helping   

n.食物的一份&adj.帮助人的，辅助的

参考例句：

• The poor children regularly pony up for a second helping of my hamburger. 那些可怜的孩子们总是要求我把我的汉堡包再给他们一份。
• By doing this, they may at times be helping to restore competition. 这样一来, 他在某些时候,有助于竞争的加强。

9 remarkable   

adj.显著的，异常的，非凡的，值得注意的

参考例句：

• She has made remarkable headway in her writing skills.她在写作技巧方面有了长足进步。
• These cars are remarkable for the quietness of their engines.这些汽车因发动机没有噪音而不同凡响。

10 cramped   

a.狭窄的

参考例句：

• The house was terribly small and cramped, but the agent described it as a bijou residence. 房子十分狭小拥挤，但经纪人却把它说成是小巧别致的住宅。
• working in cramped conditions 在拥挤的环境里工作

11 immediate   

adj.立即的；直接的，最接近的；紧靠的

参考例句：

• His immediate neighbours felt it their duty to call.他的近邻认为他们有责任去拜访。
• We declared ourselves for the immediate convocation of the meeting.我们主张立即召开这个会议。

12 peril   

n.(严重的)危险；危险的事物

参考例句：

• The refugees were in peril of death from hunger.难民有饿死的危险。
• The embankment is in great peril.河堤岌岌可危。

13 dealing   

n.经商方法，待人态度

参考例句：

• This store has an excellent reputation for fair dealing.该商店因买卖公道而享有极高的声誉。
• His fair dealing earned our confidence.他的诚实的行为获得我们的信任。

14 sane   

adj.心智健全的，神志清醒的，明智的，稳健的

参考例句：

• He was sane at the time of the murder.在凶杀案发生时他的神志是清醒的。
• He is a very sane person.他是一个很有头脑的人。

15 punctuated   

v.（在文字中）加标点符号，加标点( punctuate的过去式和过去分词 )；不时打断某事物

参考例句：

• Her speech was punctuated by bursts of applause. 她的讲演不时被阵阵掌声打断。
• The audience punctuated his speech by outbursts of applause. 听众不时以阵阵掌声打断他的讲话。 来自《简明英汉词典》

16 overt   

adj.公开的，明显的，公然的

参考例句：

• His opponent's intention is quite overt.他的对手的意图很明显。
• We should learn to fight with enemy in an overt and covert way.我们应学会同敌人做公开和隐蔽的斗争。

17 affected   

adj.不自然的，假装的

参考例句：

• She showed an affected interest in our subject.她假装对我们的课题感到兴趣。
• His manners are affected.他的态度不自然。

18 escalates   

v.（使）逐步升级( escalate的第三人称单数 )；（使）逐步扩大；（使）更高；（使）更大

参考例句：

• As the challenge escalates, the need for teamwork elevates. 面临的挑战越大，越需要团队协同合作。 来自互联网
• I cannot understand why a minor disagreement escalates into a fist-fight. 我真不明白为什么一点意见不合就变成了拳头相见。 来自互联网

19 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。

20 legitimate   

adj.合法的，合理的，合乎逻辑的；v.使合法

参考例句：

• Sickness is a legitimate reason for asking for leave.生病是请假的一个正当的理由。
• That's a perfectly legitimate fear.怀有这种恐惧完全在情理之中。

21 pending   

prep.直到，等待…期间；adj.待定的；迫近的

参考例句：

• The lawsuit is still pending in the state court.这案子仍在州法庭等待定夺。
• He knew my examination was pending.他知道我就要考试了。

22 limbo   

n.地狱的边缘；监狱

参考例句：

• His life seemed stuck in limbo and he could not go forward and he could not go back.他的生活好像陷入了不知所措的境地，进退两难。
• I didn't know whether my family was alive or dead.I felt as if I was in limbo.我不知道家人是生是死，感觉自己茫然无措。

23 longevity   

n.长命；长寿

参考例句：

• Good habits promote longevity.良好的习惯能增长寿命。
• Human longevity runs in families.人类的长寿具有家族遗传性。

24 cumulative   

adj.累积的，渐增的

参考例句：

• This drug has a cumulative effect.这种药有渐增的效力。
• The benefits from eating fish are cumulative.吃鱼的好处要长期才能显现。

25 binary   

adj.二，双；二进制的；n.双(体)；联星

参考例句：

• Computers operate using binary numbers.计算机运行运用二进位制。
• Let us try converting the number itself to binary.我们试一试，把这个数本身变成二进制数。

26 rhetoric   

n.修辞学，浮夸之言语

参考例句：

• Do you know something about rhetoric?你懂点修辞学吗？
• Behind all the rhetoric,his relations with the army are dangerously poised.在冠冕堂皇的言辞背后，他和军队的关系岌岌可危。

27 proliferate   

vi.激增，(迅速)繁殖，增生

参考例句：

• We must not proliferate nuclear arms.我们决不能扩散核武器。
• Rabbits proliferate when they have plenty of food.兔子有充足的食物就会繁衍得很快。

28 choir   

n.唱诗班，唱诗班的席位，合唱团，舞蹈团；v.合唱

参考例句：

• The choir sang the words out with great vigor.合唱团以极大的热情唱出了歌词。
• The church choir is singing tonight.今晚教堂歌唱队要唱诗。