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The Prism Gate incident in 2013 is still vivid-Snowden exposed a secret document of a monitoring project in the United States. A year later, American documentary filmmaker Laura Potas' documentary about Prism Gate, The Fourth Citizen, won the Oscar for Best Documentary Feature Film that year.
The film that won the Oscar for best documentary feature film this year is a film about "Russian Snowden"-"Icarus".
"Icarus" is about the Russian drug ban scandal that broke out in 2014-Russian officials assisted athletes in cheating in sports competitions.
As a documentary, "Icarus" has a strong drama, and even the feeling of a spy movie was shot in the second half. Moreover, the director restored the incident like a cocoon, so that audiences who did not follow sports news could have a clear understanding of the entire incident after watching the movie.
The film begins with director Brian Fogel trying to provoke the drug test system.
Fogel found that the current drug control system is basically ineffective against the carefully calculated procedures for the use of drugs. In order to prove the ineffectiveness of the current drug control system, he invited Grigory Rochenkov, the director of the Russian Anti-Doping Laboratory. He designed a drug use plan to allow him to achieve better results in amateur bicycle competitions.
Fogel started contacting Grigory in early 2014, and the film was released in 2017. When you spend years recording something or a person, accidents often happen. In Icarus, accidents are Grigory.
For some reasons, Fogel's final results were not ideal, even lower than last year's results. While Fogel's challenge ended in failure, there was a big news in the sports world-the Russian drug scandal.
The dramatic thing is that Grigory, the Russian expert who first helped the director cheat, happened to be involved in this scandal.
The scandal broke out in 2014 from a documentary filmed by German television station ARD called "Drug Secrets: How Russia Made Its Champions", and then WADA (World Anti-Drug Organization) formed a three-person independent investigation committee to investigate Investigate now. Grigory is one of the main personnel who helped the Russian official cheat, and one of the main targets called by WADA.
However, just like Snowden, Grigory has also turned averted.
Grigory fled to the United States with evidence and information, and described in detail how Russia secretly converted the athletes’ problematic urine into clean urine at the Sochi Winter Olympics. The late-night operation, KGB's assistance, and problematic urine pouring through the hole in the wall, the whole process is comparable to "Genius Gunner".
"We are top cheaters." Grigory said.
Although Grigory provided evidence of official Russian cheating, and the evidence and testimony were later confirmed by WADA to be true, the Russian government did not admit that it assisted athletes in cheating.
At the beginning of the movie, there is a passage from George Orwell in "1984", "In a world full of lies, telling the truth becomes a revolutionary act."
The director has never concealed his purpose. From the selection of posters and materials to the use of the text of "1984", he directly aimed at the Russian government under Putin.
The poster of "Icarus" is very interesting. On the red background, above is a huge hand, each finger is tied with a different colored thread. The five colors are exactly the colors of the Olympic rings. This hand controls an athlete, just like a puppet master controls a puppet.
In terms of material selection and organization, the director tried to closely link Pukin with the drug prohibition plan. There are a lot of Putin's shots in the film, his speech at the Winter Olympics, and his photos inserted from time to time, Grigory even admitted that the use of banned drugs came from Putin's instructions.
The director also inserted some information that did not seem to be related to the drug prohibition incident, also in order to more closely link Putin and the drug prohibition incident. For example, in the Sochi Winter Olympics in 2014, Russia ranked first on the medal list-33 medals and 13 gold medals. And just after the Sochi Winter Olympics, Putin's popular support rate rose sharply.
In order to strengthen its purpose, the director also directly used the text of "1984" to form an intertextuality with the film, such as directing Grigory to read "1984", such as the famous quotes from "1984" that appeared in the movie.
"1984" is a tragedy, and so is "Icarus".
Icarus is a character in Greek mythology. He has wings, wings made of feathers and wax. When he fled the island of Crete, because he flew too high and too close to the sun, the wax on his wings was melted by the sun and fell into the water and died.
Grigory is like Icarus who is too close to the sun. The director has successfully created a tragic hero image full of contradictions.
Grigory is contradictory, just like the phrase he reads about "dual thinking" at the end of the movie, "dual thinking means the ability to maintain and accept two contradictory cognitions in one's mind at the same time." , "Forbidden drugs and anti-drugs, this is a pure dual thought."
Grigory is a very smart scientist. The drug test system he created extended the test period from a few weeks to six months. Many athletes tested positive with his system. But at the same time, his behavior at the Sochi Winter Olympics was to avoid allowing athletes to test positive.
We can feel his humor, optimism and warmth in the scenes of Grigory playing with the dog and chatting with the director. But at the same time, his cheating at the Sochi Games stole the honor and medals of other fair competitors, which is disgusting.
Grigory is also tragic. He is like the Icarus who is too close to the sun. His exposure of the drug prohibition incident led to his current dangerous situation and had to join the witness protection plan.
A sentence that appears many times in the movie is, "We will meet in a place where there is no darkness."
This is a sentence from "1984". Ironically, in "1984", O'Brien, who said this, actually happened to be the opposite of Winston; and Winston, who thought that O'Brien would meet him in a dark place, Eventually it was domesticated successfully.
In the entire Russian drug ban, although WADA confirmed that Russia did indeed use banned drugs with official assistance, Russian officials still did not recognize it. Although WADA recommended that Russia be disqualified from participating in the Rio Olympics, the Olympic Committee still allowed most of Russia’s participation in the Rio Olympics. Russian athletes participated in the Rio Olympics. Grigory, who exposed the truth, had to accept the witness protection plan and stay away from his family.
Before the Oscars, the most popular and favorite documentary by fans was Granny Varda's "Face, Village", but Oscar awarded the award to this "Icarus".
If "Face, Village" talks about the beautiful side of the world, then "Icarus" shows the dark side of the world.
Although "Icarus" has a strong director's purpose, and although "Icarus" is not as cute as "Face, Village", it is undeniable that we need such a documentary.
When the director received the Oscar, the director said, “We dedicate this award to Grigory, a fearless whistleblower who is now living in danger. We hope that "Icarus" is a wake-up call for Russia. , Is also the importance of pursuing the truth." In the post-Oscar interview, the director also emphasized the importance of pursuing the truth, "The truth is the truth is the truth is the truth."
The truth is the truth, the past will not be erased, the truth will never be forgotten, and a lie will never become the truth.
· THE END ·
This is the 585th article of "Won't Disperse". The next time I meet, I hope it will be in a bright place.
This article was originally published by the WeChat public account busan-movie. Reprinting without permission is prohibited
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