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"Films" about the horror of what people do to people "Films" about the horror of what people do to people A powerful Chinese film ( I'd like to see it) By Silvia Aloisi – Mon Sep 6, 9:19 am ET VENICE – A powerful Chinese film on the plight of political prisoners condemned to forced labor camps in the late 1950s wooed critics in Venice on Monday, with some tipping it as a strong contender for the festival's top prize. "The Ditch" tells the little-known story of some 3,000 people deported for "re-education" to labor camps on the edge of the Gobi desert, in western China, and struggling to survive extreme climate and acute food shortages. Billed as right-wing enemies by the government for even mildly criticizing the Communist party or simply because of their background, many died of starvation, disease and exhaustion in the ditches that served as dormitories. Director Wang Bing spent three years tracking down survivors and wardens of the Jiabiangou and Mingshui Camps for the film, a surprise entry in the main competition line-up that was only revealed on Monday. "For 10, maybe 20 years, independent Chinese cinema has focused above all else on the social problems of the poorest working classes in contemporary China," Bing says in the production notes. "The Ditch is perhaps the first film to deal directly with contemporary China's political past, talking as it does about the 'Rightists' and what they endured in the re-education camps. It's still a taboo subject." The film, warmly applauded at a press screening, is unlikely to be released in its home country, where authorities remain sensitive about how such topics are portrayed. Still, Bing said he hoped the film would be an opportunity for younger Chinese like him -- he was born in 1967 -- to learn about their country's past. "I wanted to talk about our history, past events that can be criticized because of the way in which the Chinese suffered, and show them so that people can reflect on them," he told reporters, speaking through a translator. DOCUMENTARY STYLE Shot like a documentary, The Ditch focuses on the last three months of life in an annexe camp where the 1,500 prisoners who had survived until then were moved in 1960, as drought ravaged the whole of China. Initially forced to plough 4,000 hectares of barren land in the middle of nowhere, they are later left to waste in underground dormitories as food runs out and many cannot stand on their feet. Barely 500 people came out of that experience alive when authorities finally decided to send the prisoners back home. "Everything in the film really happened at the camp. Nothing has been made up or added," says Bing, who used many non-professional actors for his first feature film after a string of documentaries. The Ditch is one of 24 titles vying for the Venice film festival's top Golden Lion prize which will be awarded on Saturday. Also in competition and premiering on Monday is "Essential Killing," a different struggle for survival with Vincent Gallo as a suspected Taliban fighter on the run from U.S. forces in Afghanistan and later in Europe. With very sparse dialogue, and not a single word uttered by its lead character, the film by Polish director Jerzy Skolimowski follows Gallo's escape through a snow-blanketed forest, and also stars Emmanuelle Seigner as the mute woman who briefly helps him. ( end) _______________________________________________________ Always the history has many details, its good when the brave of heart expand themselves, to explore it, many people often times have no ideas of what tragedies impact the lives of many, in the history of nations, as unfortunate as it is, many have not much care to investigate such things. But wonder why in the reality of today, many thing exist as they do. Seemingly there is much present day society is unaware of, in the degree and extent of what there is within the roots, of what stands as the outgrowth of what is today. We learn better how to build greater fortitude against the repeats of such tragedies, by learning of the mentalities that created and the society that tolerate the existence of such things. the history which made today, has been one of many things. through investigative efforts and painstaking research, those mindset are reviewed, What they present, makes ways for much to be learned, then learning can encompass how not to be lead and mis-led, and how not to stand with a blind eye, or the mind of a follower, to allow such things to escalate in societies, which result to damage many peoples lives. Troubled history, is a reality of many places, sadly there was much of society that stood with a blind eye, during all these historical tragedies. Example, when the Jews were burned, there were many with a blind eyes, as was too, when slavery was the rage, and many with blind eyes, deny the horror in the content and extent of what was truly engaged of such devastating activities by human beings against human beings. Much of today's society, see it as an anomaly, or something unreal, or not fathomable to the extent of tragic realism it truly was. Even many today, are unaware of the massive massacre in China, and in Cambodia, as well as Rwanda and the problems that led to the divisive nation of India, Africa and many other places. Unfortunate as it is necessary, these films serve a good means to see what is history and the actions of people, as well as what is within the history of those truth. visual media seem to be capable to show, what many will not willingly discuss, it serves to help society, not to continue to repeat over and over the tragedies of the past. Roots did a great story to depict the tragedies and horrors of slavery, which many had never thought of, Schindler's List was a very good film that depicted horror tragedy of the Holocaust, and the documentary "Eyes of the Holocaust", there were films about "The Killing Fields, that shows tragedy and death of Cambodian slaughter and the film. Hotel Rwanda, was a good film about the slaughter and tragedy so many suffered. In The Time of Butterflies, was a good film about Dominican Republic, and countless films about the war in Vietnam. so many films about so much tragedy over the ages, is a very good usage of cinema. unfortunately, these films only can tough on segments and much may be missed, for the sake of cinema standards, but in the reality of full exposure, it may well be even more impacting if more of the details were shown, about the taboo areas, that films to some degree avoid to present, for a variety of reasons.. These film makers, do good work to show, the sad actions of people against people in the history of society. We live today in a society that is focused on "good time activity", and we often like to assume the past has never existed, but what is within the history has so much inference on what exist in the present day realism. "One cannot and must not try to erase the past merely because it does not fit the present." ~Golda Meir History is philosophy teaching by examples. ~Thucydides ____________________________________ |
