Experience the crisis of kidnapping and bombing "Border Nights" directed by Gianfranco Rosi, showing people living in the border area of the Middle East
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0 comments 0 commentsDirector Gianfranco Rosi
"The Roman Circular Route, the Traveling Life" and "The Sea is a Burning Small Island in the Southernmost Region of Italy", won the highest award in history for the first time in a documentary at the Berlin International Film Festival and the Venetian International Film Festival. The latest film "Border Nights" directed by Gianfranco Rosi in the border areas of Iraq, Documentary, Syria and Lebanon. It captures the activities of people living in conflict zones with quiet and poetic images, and tells the history and story that flows through the land. Prior to the release, an interview with Director Rosie was released. [Video] "Border Nights" Trailer-Tell me why you decided to visit the border areas of Iraq, Syria, Lebanon and Kurdistan after "The Sea is Burning on His Southernmost Small Island in Italy" please. After spending two years on Lampedusa and shooting a movie, people rushed to Europe like a wave to escape the tragedy of their own country. I met many people who were fortunate enough to flee to Europe with hope, even though they didn't know what was going to happen. After that, it was a natural step for me to go to the place where the tragedy actually happened. At that time, when I heard that ISIS was collapsing, I was beginning to see some hope. I started my trip there and stayed in the border area of the Middle East for three years. This movie is the result of that three-year stay. By meeting people who were actually affected by ISIS, etc. in places where various borders are in conflict, I was able to see what kind of tragedy had happened. --Have you noticed what you saw when you photographed the border area? First of all, I wanted to find something absolute. So I traveled around the Middle East for several months without a camera looking for an identity in this area. By the end of that trip, I decided to include the people and regions I met during that time in the movie. The trip created a psychological map with the borders removed. People are individuals, but we wanted to be anonymous and to see the history and tragedy that the region has followed. I made a margin so that the border cannot be seen. An artificially created border is a place where history is accumulated and life and death are separated. There, I met the people who appeared in the movie. Borders are a modern paradox. Originally, I wanted to start this movie in the dark. In the dark, I don't know if it's a tree or a snake. Darkness is a metaphor of blindness. I thought that this movie had to include "invisible things". --Why did you choose the documentary method? I don't think there is a difference between documentary and fiction. Isn't it the difference in adaptability from moment to moment? Transform the reality that unfolds in front of you into a frame. What is important for a movie is the "point of view". Observation alone is not enough. What you tell is important. Information is abundant in this era. Therefore, I want to make the information that I talk about feel intimate and integrated with life. Therefore, I spend a lot of time in the field. Meet people in a meaningful place. It must be representative of the place. That is the challenge. Since the time of the first work "Boatman", I have been focusing on it. When shooting a movie, I value the three points of "transformation," "extraction," and "construction." When creating a frame, there must be a story within the frame. My job is to meet people who want to talk about this person. Everything happens by chance. The haiku is short, but the observation is sharp and very unique, as represented by Matsuo Basho. But observation alone is not enough. Image metaphor, conversion is required. I want to decide the frame, observe it, and digest it. I don't want to make aesthetic images, I want to make the image forever. In Pasolini's words, it is "the sparkle of truth." It's important to lose, and you have to include what you lose in the frame. When Bertolucci won the award at the Berlin International Film Festival, "The Sea is Burning, His Southernmost Small Island in Italy," Bertolucci said he loved the film. He said, "There's a story that doesn't come out. A perfect frame includes front and back. What's behind the scene must be in the frame." ――What are you doing while traveling without a camera? In the history of the border, I tried to meet the stories of people, places where turbulence occurred. I met a man riding a motorcycle in Basra, where as many as 3 million people died in the Iran-Iraq War. When I passed him on the bike, his face and how he sat on the bike looked like a bird and spoke to him. He was a hunter hunting in the swamps at night. At night, the flames of the oil field rise, so if you hunt in the light. So I told him, "I'll be back again, so let me shoot." When I returned to him after about 6-8 months, he was very surprised and hugged me like his longtime friend, saying, "You really want to tell me what you're talking about." rice field. Then he opened his heart to me, so he followed me everywhere. I've been with him for a month or two. In a very dangerous area, he was about to be kidnapped twice. When he went hunting, there were no birds and we took an eternal "wait". And he became a metaphor. He was a waiter for his enemies and looked like a survivor living in another dimension who survived Mars, the Moon, and the Sun. There is always the sound of war in the background. The rifle sound in this scene is real. It became a powerful scene. I met about 6 to 7 people on a trip without a camera. I returned to the land I met many times. Sometimes the person's story can last up to three years. When I was filming the town of Sinjar, a young man said, "I'm the first tourist to see the war with IS." The man's wife is said to have been kidnapped along with her family. The man's wife showed me a cell phone with a message asking for her help, and she shot all the messages. I didn't know what she was saying on the spot, but I knew from the feeling of her voice that she was asking for help. I went to the land many times, but never photographed him, and he didn't want to be photographed either. About three years after I met him, when I went there again, he remarried and had a child, and I wanted to forget about mobile phones. So I got the call. I heard that the mother of the Lord, who had the voice of the message left on her cell phone, was released from IS and lived in Germany, and went to see her mother. The story of being abused in front of her daughter and being raped in front of her mother ... I couldn't shoot very much. So, when I listened to her story and tried to go home, her mother said, "I'm not shooting!" When I told her I had a cell phone with her daughter's voice, she said she wanted to hear her daughter's voice. The German apartment was very western, but there was a blanket in the room that was likely to be in Baghdad, so I wrapped it up to hear a message and shot it. About three years after I first heard about it, it finally took shape. ――What do you think is the reason for the conflict? How can the conflict go away? The Pope will give a better answer to that question. It is an ethical issue, including the history of mankind. If I talk about this movie, I didn't want to show the scene of the war. In fact, there was also a bombing. Life is a few kilometers away from violence. In "Border Nights", war was depicted as something like "echo". The shock wave is long and resonates in everyday life in the distance. I wanted to get closer to that everyday pain. The tragedy of fate where the future cannot be seen. A betrayal of history that we are also responsible for. So the movie ended with a close-up of a 14-year-old boy Ali. His expression shows that he thinks "my future is gone". "Border Nights" will be released nationwide from February 11th, including Bunkamura Le Cinema, Human Trust Cinema Yurakucho and others.
Last updated: Movie.com
