2010年南非世界杯把世人的目光带到了非洲这片丰饶的大地。你可以在尼罗河畔想象埃及妖后动人的身姿与她惊世骇俗的爱情,也可以在撒哈拉大沙漠体验大自然美丽却又狰狞的一面。在这里,美景与传说让人心醉,战乱与疾病却让人心碎。《紧急救护:无国界医生的故事》以这片土地为背景,讲述一个关于“无国界医生”这个群体的故事。影片采用的是纪录片的手法,因此你在这里看不到“偏袒”与“神化”的色彩,有的只是血与泪、悲与喜。你会发现,那些医生每天与死神搏斗,在他们眼中“爱”与“恨”都不是解决问题的方法,他们凭着“责任”与“勇气”,伸出疗伤的手,抚慰那些焦躁的心灵。 ——Mac
文字难度：★★★☆
Treating the World's Sorrow and Pain 《紧急救护:无国界医生的故事》：生命没有国界
At one point in Living in Emergency: Stories of Doctors Without Borders—Mark Hopkins’s new documentary about the Paris-based humanitarian group—an Australian doctor 1)stationed in Congo, his tongue loosened by a lot of local beer, 2)unloads his 3)scorn for 4)UNICEF and other, similar organizations. They approach mass suffering, he says, by way of theories, meetings, and 5)high-minded statements of principle, whereas he and other Doctors Without Borders physicians meet the consequences of war, epidemic, and natural disaster one patient at a time.
马克·霍普金斯执导的最新纪录片《紧急救护:无国界医生的故事》讲述的是一个以巴黎为基地的人道主义组织的故事,片中有这么一幕:一名驻扎在刚果的澳大利亚医生狂灌了大量本地啤酒之后,醉醺醺地吐起苦水来,嘲讽贬斥联合国儿童基金会和其他类似的团体组织。他说,面对大众疾苦,这些组织只是提提理论,开开会,和嚷嚷高尚的道德准则,而面对战争、瘟疫和自然灾害这些烂摊子,他们这些无国界医生却是通过救治一个个病人来逐一解决。
The organization, also known by its French name, Médecins Sans Frontières, was founded in France in 1971 and is devoted to the simple idea that its doctors should go where they are desperately needed without regard for political considerations or long-term 6)agendas. Though the film spends little time at the organization’s headquarters, it basically adheres to this ground-level approach, following a few volunteers in the field as they treat the sick and wounded and try to uphold modern standards of care in rough and sometimes horrifying circumstances.
无国界医生组织的法语名称“Médecins Sans Frontières”也广为人知,于1971年在法国创建,一直秉承这么一个简朴的宗旨——组织内的医生必须到任何极度需要他们的地方,而不必考虑政治因素或长远规划。虽然该片甚少提及该组织的总部,但影片基本上坚持这种“从基层着手”的宗旨,跟随几个志愿者实地拍摄他们如何在简陋,甚至恶劣的环境下,努力以现代的医疗标准来治疗伤患。
A more conventional kind of documentary might have 7)delved deeper into the history and philosophy of the organization, one of whose founders was Bernard Kouchner, a former leftist militant who is now foreign minister in France’s right-of-center government. (A fascinating account of Mr. Kouchner’s career can be found in Paul Berman’s book Power and the Idealists.) And, similarly, if Living in Emergency had stuck more closely to the conventions of movies that seek to raise Western awareness of terrible situations elsewhere in the world, it would have explored what is going on in 8)Liberia and Congo, where most of the film takes place.
传统的纪录片可能会深入探讨无国界组织的历史和理念,而该组织的创始人之一是贝尔纳·库什内,他曾经是一名左翼军人,如今在走“中间偏右路线”的法国政府中任外交部部长(保罗·伯曼的著作《力量和理想主义者》对贝尔纳先生的事业发展有着精彩的描述)。如果《紧急救护》也像传统的纪录片一样试图让西方国家更加关注其他地方的恶劣生存条件,那该片就应该深入论述利比亚和刚果(该片大部分场景的拍摄地)的国内状况才是。
But that kind of 9)contextualization would have been 10)antithetical, both to the organization’s mission and to Mr. Hopkins’s own interest, which is in the particular challenges faced by individual doctors who 11)sign up for six-month tours in what they routinely describe as some of the worst places on earth. What we know about Liberia, for the purposes of the film, is that it recently emerged from a long, unimaginably brutal civil war of the kind that Congo is still suffering. This means that the 12)devastation the medical volunteers find in Liberia is 13)leavened by hope, and that the superior facilities that seem to exist in Congo are under constant threat of violence.
但是这种“处境化提示”有违无国界医生组织的使命,也让霍普金斯个人感到乏味,他更想着眼于无国界医生个体面对的种种困难挑战——他们自告奋勇参与到这为期半年的旅程,前往那些他们习惯称之为“世界上最恶劣的地方”。从电影中我们可以看到,利比亚刚从一场持久而残酷无比的内战中缓过气来,而刚果那边却又陷入类似的战祸。这意味着,在利比亚,医疗志愿者发现停战的曙光使战争带来的伤痛得以缓解;而在刚果,那些看似较为良好的设施却不断受到暴力的威胁。
The idealistic doctors are beaten down by practicing medicine under extreme circumstances: too many patients, never enough supplies, time, or staff. Most volunteers never advance past their first nine-month mission. Doctors in Congo treat gunshot and 14)machete wounds, whereas their counterparts in Liberia deal with infectious diseases, malnutrition, and the effects of poor 15)sanitation. And while some of the drama in Living in Emergency comes from the tension of specific cases—will the boy with the head wound survive? What is causing that child’s face and belly to swell?—the film, just like any good hospital television series, is really about the curious psychology of the medical profession. It is, most 16)affectingly, a series of portraits depicting men and women who, while they are undeniably selfless, brave, and hard-working, can also be vain, jealous, 17)self-righteous, and, from time to time, drunk.
要在极端恶劣的环境下行医,那些满怀理想主义的医生们往往会被现实打败——病人太多,而物资缺乏,时间,人手也不足。大多数志愿者熬完为期九个月的首个救助任务后就不会继续展开下一个任务。身处刚果的医生要治疗受枪伤刀伤的病人,而在利比亚的医生则要处理传染病、营养不良和因卫生条件差而引发的疾病。电影的部分戏剧张力在于对某些具体医疗个案的描述——头部受伤的那个男孩能活过来吗?什么原因导致那个孩子的脸部和腹部肿胀?——然而,跟其他优秀的医疗题材片一样,该电影真正关注的是医护人员的奇特心理。最触动人心的是,影片描述了一系列人物,有男有女,一方面,无可否认,他们是大公无私、勇敢无畏、工作刻苦的;但同时,他们也有虚荣、善妒和自以为是的一面,而且,不时还会喝得酩酊大醉。
Mr. Hopkins 18)gravitates toward four doctors in particular: Tom Krueger, a surgeon from Tennessee; Chris Brasher, an Australian who has given most of his career to the organization, and whose work for it fills his 19)nomadic life with novelty, danger, and meaning; Chiara Lepora, who is Italian and 20)oversees the group’s activities in Liberia; and Davinder Gill, another Australian, who works virtually alone at a clinic in a remote, rural part of that country. Dr. Lepora 21)likens Dr. Gill to Kurtz in Joseph Conrad’s 22)Heart of Darkness, going slowly mad in the bush, but he is also furious at the lack of 23)logistical and moral support coming from her.
霍普金斯先生着重讲述四个医生的故事——来自美国田纳西州的外科医生汤姆·克鲁格;来自澳大利亚的克里斯·布拉什,他大多数时间都在无国界医生组织工作,因此他流浪天涯的行医经历既充满新鲜刺激,又危机四伏,同时极富意义;来自意大利的医生恰瓦拉·利波拉,负责监管无国界医生组织在利比亚的活动;另一名来自澳大利亚的医生达文德尔·吉尔,他孤身一人在利比亚偏僻地区的一个诊所里工作。利波拉医生把吉尔医生比作约瑟夫·康拉德的小说《黑暗之心》中的库尔兹,说他像这个小说人物一样在丛林里逐渐精神崩溃;同时,吉尔医生也为利波拉医生不给自己提供足够的后勤支援和精神支持而大动肝火。
These doctors are hard on themselves and on one another, and as Living in Emergency 24)chronicles their small triumphs and large frustrations, a larger picture emerges, almost despite the film’s 25)avowedly local emphasis. Doctors Without Borders, for all its global prestige, is a small organization, and since it cannot be everywhere at once, it must often leave places like Liberia just as things are starting to improve. The extent of the need around the world is so enormous and overwhelming that the efforts of the doctors in this 26)sobering film seem both vitally necessary and 27)woefully inadequate.
这些医生对自己和伙伴都很苛刻,而随着《紧急救护》按照事情发生的先后顺序来记录描述他们的小成功和大挫折,更大层面的意义展现了出来,尽管该片毫无避忌地重点再现当地的情况。无国界医生组织虽然誉满天下,却只是个规模不大的组织,由于无国界医生的足迹不可能短时间内覆盖全球各地,那么他们必须离开那些情况开始好转的地方,如利比亚。全球各地的人们援助需求实在太庞大、让人难以招架,以致于在这部发人深省的电影中,无国界医生的那份努力看似极其必要,然而却不幸地只是杯水车薪。
