The full text is 3497 words and was first published in the magazine "Chinese and Foreign Military Film and Television". Reprinting is declined. If any form of "washing" is found, it must be investigated in accordance with the law.
Afghanistan is located in the heart of Asia. Since ancient times, no matter whether it is an extraterritorial power or an internal separatist force, they have wanted to get something from this country. " One side sings and the other comes on stage " -this land seems to have never been tranquil. By 1994, the Taliban regime was established on the border between Pakistan and Afghanistan. They were not attached to any factions. They regarded the Koran as a law. The goal was to transform the Afghan country and society in accordance with Islamic fundamentalism. They swept the country in just a few years. Although their policies are much more formal than those of warlords, the policies of brutality, discrimination against women, resistance to all modernization except weapons, and hatred of all religions have made this country live in repression and terror since then.
The story of the film "The Breadwinner" took place in this context. The Pawana family lived in the shadow of the Taliban government all day, in the most severe situation in the capital of Afghanistan-Kabul, where women have no social status. Girls cannot go to school or go to work. Adult women must wear thick "polka" and be accompanied by their husbands to go out. Violators will be beaten by Taliban soldiers at every turn . In such a difficult living environment, the heroine Pawana’s father was also abused and framed by a former student and arrested in prison. The family instantly lost their support for life, leaving Pawana, a sick mother, The grown-up sister and the younger brother who is waiting to be fed are four. In order to make ends meet, Pawana had to cut off her long hair, walked out of the house disguised as a boy, and embarked on the life-or-death path to support the family...
"The breadwinner" is the third work of the Irish Cartoon Saloon animation studio. Like the predecessors "The Secret of Kelvin" and "Song of the Sea", "The breadwinner" is also a hand-drawn animation film. . At the moment when three-dimensional CG animation is popular, two-dimensional hand-drawn animation has long been fascinated. This kind of animation production model with the spirit of ascetic has disappeared and is gradually eroded and replaced by the fast-developing animation film industry in Hollywood . People are keen to appreciate Hollywood animation movies with magnificent scenes, gorgeous special effects, and strong visual impact. They gradually forget the hand-painted animation movies. However, the cartoon salon animation studio has successively used "The Secret of Kell" and "Song of the Sea". "" and "The breadwinner" made the hand-painted animation film re-enter the audience's field of vision, giving people a long-lost intimacy. In the studio’s works, whether it is the "Secret of the Kelvin" that emphasizes decorative style or the "Song of the Sea" that incorporates ukiyo-e, meticulous brushwork, ink and other elements, it always awakens the audience's yearning for "beauty" . "The breadwinner" is also.
In "The Breadwinner", there are two very different worlds. In the real world, years of war have completely destroyed this historic country. Painters used realistic brushstrokes to depict the devastated and barely grassy Kabul in only a few colors -the earthy yellow desert is endless and brown-gray buildings. The sky is full of bullet holes and dark black soot is all over the sky-it is difficult to see a trace of bright colors; and in Pawana’s story there is another world, where the painters do not hesitate to color and open the sealed paint The box releases the imagination imprisoned by the real world, and combines paper-cutting, engraving and hand-painting styles to construct a story world with a Middle Eastern style and idealism for the audience. The huge contrast makes the "beauty" of the story world and the "ugliness" of the real world form a sharp contrast, guiding the audience to the palace of "beauty" in a subtle way. At the same time, the boy Suleiman in the story world, the crying villager, The cruel Elephant King clearly reflects the heroine Pawana, the Afghan people, and the Taliban regime in the real world, with clear points and far-reaching implications. It can be said that "The Breadwinner" not only has both aesthetic and symbolic meaning, but also makes two-dimensional hand-drawn animations accepted and loved by more audiences.
Looking at the three works of the Cartoon Salon Animation Studio, the story of "The Breadwinner" is not rooted in Celtic mythology like "The Secret of the Kelvin" and "Song of the Sea". It is based on the sweet Irish folk songs and gorgeous National art impressed the audience. Director Mela Tomei boldly chose Deborah Iris’ best-selling novel "Pavana’s Waiting" as the film’s blueprint, focusing on Afghanistan, which has a complex historical environment, which led to "Family Support" In "The Man", there is no longer Ashling (the forest spirit in "The Secret of Kell") who can transform into various animals, and there is no longer Saoirsa who roams freely in the ocean ("Song of the Sea" Seal Elf in )——Everything is based on the real world, and the strong realism style also makes "The Breadwinner" more heavy and miserable, but "The Breadwinner" stands bravely and uniquely on the shoulders of the animation, Carrying up this heavy theme, showing this tragic world to the world . Of course, the film does not have the power to veto hope. By portraying one after another vivid characters—especially female characters, the director gave the bleak and gloomy Afghanistan a touch of gentleness and light, just like putting a bright red on Kabul every day. The morning light of the scarf.
In the female characters portrayed in the film, the audience can get a glimpse of their living state in the city through Pawana’s perspective: there are not many shots of Pawana’s mother, and we can know from the information given in the film She was a writer in peacetime, but now, she has nowhere to display her talents; Pawana’s sister is an adult, she shrinks in a small room every day, watching the outside through a square glass window In this world, when the family was in crisis, she had to marry a man she had never met before; Pawana’s former classmate Xiao Xia was forced by life to disguise herself as a woman and work in the market. She also named herself "De "Liwa" (meaning "courage"), she is optimistic and cheerful, dreaming of seeing the sea one day and working hard to save money for it. In a sense, these three female characters with distinctive personalities and different experiences are but not just characters in the story— they have been transformed into three groups, and they are the true portrayal of Afghan women during the war : the mother represents Those independent women who came from peacetime and once had jobs and normal lives. Sister is one of the thousands of Afghan women who have no freedom of behavior and marriage. The former classmates represent nowhere to be a home in the war. The next generation of women. From the film, we can see that Pawana’s former classmates are still full of longing for the future, while her sister’s eyes have long lost her brilliance. The old generation of women and the two life attitudes of the same generation of women seem to tell the audience a cruel Fact- this war has destroyed too much .
Regarding all this, we can of course blame the Taliban government for the oppression and cruelty of women over the years, but the film focuses on two images of Taliban soldiers that are not in line with traditional concepts. One is Pawana. His father falsely accused the thin soldier in prison, and the other was a taciturn burly soldier. The former was a good student in the school, but dropped the pen and picked up the gun during the wave of the civil war. He enjoyed the rights granted him by the Taliban government and bullied the poor with his own power, but his eyes showed Confused and incomprehensible, he is an ordinary person alienated by war, a controlled puppet, and the saddest person in this era ; the latter has a kind heart from beginning to end, and finally realized himself with blood. Salvation . I believe that these two characters are not justifying the actions of the Taliban government, nor are they beautifying its bad behavior, but out of the director ’s compassion for the pathetic and the firm belief in the beauty of human nature . In other words, the film is opposed to internal warfare. , Totalitarian rule, terrorism, and female discrimination , without targeting all Taliban soldiers (ordinary Afghans in peacetime).
The film culminates when Suleiman faces the Elephant King in the story world. After going through all the difficulties and obstacles, Suleiman finally came to the bottom of the mountain. He repeatedly shouted to the elephant king: " One day, I found a toy on the street. I picked it up and it exploded. , I don’t know the next thing, because that’s the ending. " At this moment, the real world and the story world began to blend with each other, and the image of the boy who "disappeared" in Pawana’s family gradually became fuller, and the film was revealed to the audience at the same time. The last and most cruel secret. At this time, the real world war started again, imprinted in the souls of Afghans like a spell of eternal reincarnation.
"The breadwinner" makes it easy to think of the first novel "The Kite Chaser" by the American Afghan writer Khaled Husseini. The two tell completely different stories, but both are in personal stories. It shows the history of a nation’s soul and the history of a country’s suffering. They both reveal the tenderness and connection between people when they are telling the suffering and cruelty. They all contain the rich and heavy soul of the ancient country of Afghanistan, which is agitated. The undercurrent of good and evil. "Family Supporter" and "Kite Chaser" allowed the world to learn about a war-torn and unknown Afghan family, and to understand this ancient nation that has been suffering and advancing continuously.
In "The Kite Chaser", the author has a description of Afghans: " In Afghanistan, the ending is the most important. What they want to know is whether the ending is happy. After all, life is not an Indian movie. Afghans always like it. Say'life will always go on.' They don't care about the beginning or end, success or failure, in danger or in the dark, they just advance slowly like a nomadic tribe. "At the beginning and end of "The Breadwinner", there is a similar Narration: "The Kush Mountains, the capital city of Guangxi, adorns our country. The hot northern desert scorches our land, and the scorched gravel sets off the ice peaks. Our original name is Aliana. It is a great country. You can be powerful and powerful. , But don’t clamor, it’s the rain and dew that nourishes the flowers, not the billowing thunder. " Not as direct as in "The Kite Chaser," but it slowly expresses the Afghans’ respect and love for this land, and also expresses it. The simple life attitude of the Afghan people.
Under the stars, this ill-fated family reunited, and the story came to an end. The ending of the film is open-ended, and it does not tell the audience what is going to happen next, even if the audience still has questions of one kind or another-we always have too many questions, such as will they survive the war? Will the heroine Pawana see Xiao Xia by the sea after the promised twenty years?
No one knows an exact answer, but I want to believe that the Pawana family will be like thousands of Afghan families. Even if life is difficult, they will move slowly in the chaotic world, walking non-stop, just like Afghans often It said: " Life will always go on. "
*This article refers to relevant Baidu Encyclopedia entries, such as "Afghanistan", "Taliban", "Secrets of the Kell", "Decorative Art", "Family Supporter", etc.
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