(The spoiler is below) The
whole film is interspersed with three clues. One is the natural scenery of the Virunga (this translation is too weird) and the sacrifices made by a group of forest rangers to protect the park. The other is the rebellion in the Republic of Congo in 2013. The war initiated by the army, the third is that a British Petroleum company called Soco wanted to control the rebels to snatch the oil resources under the park.
The whole film is in an unconventional time sequence. Even in the first 20 minutes you thought it was a wild protection scenery film. After another 20 minutes, you think it is an exposure of the illegal behavior of the oil company, but in the end, the 12-minute war scene makes you I was surprised that there was too much to say in this film. The director also said that at the beginning, I just wanted to make a documentary that simply showed the beautiful scenery of Virunga Park. Who knows that so many things happened later, I added them all.
The first protagonist in it is of course Mountain Gorilla (a kind of translation says it is a mountain gorilla). It is a rare animal and a feature of this park. There is a very complete funeral of the gorilla who was shot. The murderer’s idea Yes, kill all these orangutans, no one will protect this park, and they can occupy it. So at the beginning, the rangers were fighting against these people.
Later, the director met a female journalist Mélanie who wrote freely for AP, and jointly talked about the shady scenes of the oil company Soco. The female journalists brought hidden cameras to shoot. The fragments of the conversation with the soco personnel in the Congo. These conversations are very shocking. For example, the two persons in charge are called John and Julien (the reason why the names of these two people are particularly clear is that the person who answered the two names the fastest You can get a poster signed by the director), they talked about the deal between soco and the rebels, and no one would consider protecting the gorilla (the original sentence is an swear word). These videos are very controversial and have become the fundamental reason why Soco continues to sue them.
Later, several questions were about this paragraph. The director said that they had 27 lawyers in the end. Because the relevant laws of each country are different, it is necessary to strictly ensure the factuality and legality of the video. After the film was released, soco threatened them to go through legal proceedings, and also threatened all the film exhibitions where the film was shown and the reporters who wrote the film reviews of the film. As soon as this remark came out, the bottom was amazed, so the director reluctantly said that there is no First Amendment in the UK, and of course you can't just say what you want to say in the United States. However, it is a bit regretful that Soco has not stopped its plan to exploit oil in Congo, and the response to this film is more like a pr manuscript (director's original words).
At the end, it is a video of the rebel m32 invading the town where the park is located. The live ammunition is very real, and it feels like seed bombs are being shot. The film cuts three shots. The thoughts and actions of the forest rangers in the park. From the perspective of Mélanie, who was whispering in the car, there were scenes of people fleeing in panic in the swept villages. So someone asked the director, how do you feel like you are everywhere? How many cameras did you use? The director said that the war actually lasted for several days, and he also jumped up and down for several days, but in the end they were all cut together, so people thought it happened at the same time.
The director has mixed feelings about the Canon 5d, but since I don't know anything about the camera, I won't comment.
Postscript: Today is the first day of the new semester, and it is also duPont awards. The director also traveled a long way to receive an award. Who knows that he was detained by our school and forced to be so late.
Another postscript: After watching it, I excitedly told my friends that this film is super good, maybe it can really get the best Oscar record. My friend said, ha ha, there is citizenfour as well. .
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