四川大地震重建的紀錄片在美播出

During the three years Qi Zhao spent filming “Fallen City,” he captured his subject — the town of Beichuan, wiped out in the 2008 Sichuan earthquake, two-thirds of its people killed and 80 percent of its buildings destroyed — as it slowly disappeared. In time-lapse images, fields of rubble become fields of grass. Part of the old city is turned into an earthquake museum, with railings installed in front of piles of shattered concrete.

在趙琦拍攝《殤城》的三年時間裏，他看着自己的拍攝對象北川縣慢慢消失。北川在2008年的四川地震中被毀，三分之二的居民死亡，80%的建築被毀。在電影畫面中，隨着時間的流逝，瓦礫場變成了草場。舊城的一部分被改成了地震博物館，一堆堆破碎的混凝土前安上了圍欄。

“Fallen City,” showing Monday in PBS’s “POV” series, looks both forward and back. It’s a conventional aftermath story, following three families devastated by the earthquake as they deal with the emotional and logistical aftershocks: intense, sometimes paralyzing mourning along with the need to relocate while a new Beichuan is being built. But it’s also an elegy for the former Beichuan, once a picturesque town nestled along a riverbank. Mr. Qi’s subjects keep returning to the ruins to commune with their dead children, parents and siblings, and his camera lingers over the wreckage, turning the debris and the scattered buildings into misty brush paintings. (The cinematography was by Shaoguang Sun.)

《殤城》週一在PBS頻道的POV系列中播出。它既展望未來，也回顧過去。它是個講述災難餘波的傳統故事，記錄了三個遭到地震重創的家庭應對震後情緒波動和生活安置的過程：他們情緒激動，有時因哀傷而昏厥，還要考慮重新安家的問題，當時新北川正在建設中。不過這部紀錄片也是舊北川的輓歌，它曾是個秀麗的河畔小城。主人公們不斷返回廢墟，與死去的孩子、父母和兄弟姐妹談心。鏡頭長時間停留在廢墟上，把瓦礫和破碎的建築變成朦朧的水墨畫（該片的攝影指導是孫少光）。

Of the three stories, one, about a teenage boy, is touching but a little generic; his alienation can be attributed to his father’s death in the quake, but you suspect he might have turned against school and parents regardless. One, about a civil servant who lost a daughter and three sisters, has the sort of unexpected twist that’s a documentarian’s dream. And the third, about the Pengs, a likable couple who lost their only child, is simply heartbreaking. A scene in which soldiers prevent them from re-entering the old town to visit the makeshift tomb they’ve built for their daughter is brutal in its despair.

這三個故事中有一個講述的是一個十多歲的男孩，這個故事很感人，但也有點俗套。他的孤僻可能是因爲父親在地震中去世，但是你也懷疑他可能本來對學校和父母都有點敵視。第二個故事講述的是一個公務員，她失去了女兒和三個姐妹，這個故事有個意外的情節突變，這是紀錄片製作人們最希望遇到的。第三個故事講述的是可愛的彭氏夫婦，他們失去了獨子，傷痛欲絕。在其中一幕裏，士兵們阻止他們再次進入舊城探望他們給女兒修建的臨時墓地，這很殘忍，令人絕望。

Mr. Qi’s background is in Chinese television, and “Fallen City,” his first film as a director, is not the sort of formally inventive or tough-minded documentary associated with filmmakers like Wang Bing or Jia Zhangke. It’s a bit slick in its mournfulness, and it tactfully avoids subjects like the efficacy of the government’s response in the immediate aftermath of the quake. Mr. Qi makes clear, though, from his portrayal of the bleak new Beichuan and his inclusion of banal newscasts celebrating its construction that his sympathy lies with the survivors who sneak past guards and clamber over dangerous debris just to feel at home.

趙琦來自中國電視圈，《殤城》是他導演的第一部影片。這部電影不是王冰或賈樟柯的那種在形式上很有創意或者很冷酷的紀錄片。它的悲涼有點老套，它巧妙避開政府的震後應對效率等主題。不過，趙琦描繪了荒涼的新北川，並加入了新聞報道對其落成的陳腐讚美，這些都清楚地表明他同情的是那些倖存者——他們偷偷繞過衛兵，爬上危險的廢墟，只是爲了有家的感覺。