在平壤電影節體驗朝鮮的另一個世界
PYONGYANG, North Korea — Sprawling 10 million square feet across a hilly expanse on the outskirts of this capital city, the Pyongyang Film Studio, said to be the world’s largest, features a variety of representations of foreign locales reflecting North Korea’s propagandized vision of the outside world.
朝鮮平壤――平壤影視城(Pyongyang Film Studio)佔地1000萬平方英尺（約合93萬平方米），橫貫朝鮮首都平壤郊外的一處山地，據說是世界上最大的影視城，裏面有各種外國地點的展示，反映了朝鮮政治宣傳中外部世界的樣子。
There are sets meant to depict Japan, a generic European streetscape and South Korea circa 1950. The street standing in for South Korea, the North’s longtime rival and more prosperous neighbor, includes a seedy brothel, a tawdry bar and a shady blood bank, all seemingly designed to cast it as a paradigm of decrepitude and sin.
有些場景意在描繪日本，還有一處歐洲普通街道的景色，以及大約1950年左右韓國的樣子。韓國是朝鮮長期以來的對手，也是它更加繁榮的鄰居，在那條代表韓國的街道上，有一個破破爛爛的妓院，一個花裏胡哨的酒吧，還有一個看起來就不像好地方的血庫，似乎一切都是爲了把韓國樹立爲腐朽罪惡的典範。
On a recent sunny afternoon, however, the studio was eerily empty. The postproduction facilities appeared unstaffed, and the interior sets, veiled in cobwebs and dust, looked in disrepair.
前不久，一個陽光明媚的下午，這個影視城空空蕩蕩的，有種陰森的感覺。電影后期製作部門裏沒了員工，內景上覆滿了蛛網和灰塵，看上去破破爛爛。
Asked about the evident decay, a guide insisted that the sets were constantly in use.
被問及這樣明顯的衰敗是怎麼回事，一個導遊堅稱，這些片場還在經常使用。
“There was a crew shooting here yesterday, and they will be shooting again tomorrow,” he said. “They are just taking a break today.”
“昨天還有劇組在拍戲，他們明天就再回來拍，”他說。“他們就是今天休息。”
The guide’s charges were in town for one of the few chances that outsiders have to go behind the baffling facade of North Korea — the biennial Pyongyang International Film Festival. And like the studio tour, this year’s festival, the 15th, offered a vivid disconnect from the underlying poverty of a nation unable to feed its citizens and reeling from tough United Nations sanctions prompted by its nuclear weapons program.
這個導遊帶領的參觀者正在造訪平壤，他們獲得了一個爲數不多的機會，可以走入朝鮮那令人困惑的表面文章的背後。他們正在參與兩年一度的平壤國際電影節(Pyongyang International Film Festival)。這是一個無法餵飽自己人民，並因爲發展核武器項目而遭受聯合國嚴厲制裁的國家，和影城之旅一樣，電影節明顯和這個國家深入肌理的貧困狀況脫鉤。
The opening ceremony did not lack grandiosity. Staged in mid-September at the capital’s Central Youth Hall, glimmering for the occasion, it was attended by government functionaries, festival delegates and representatives from various embassies. Cars belonging to officials and buses carrying performing arts groups clogged the expansive parking lot as smartly dressed women filed into the packed theater, the clicking of their heels reverberating off the walls of the high-ceilinged lobby. There was no mention of the U.N. sanctions or recent devastating floods.
開幕式不乏壯觀場面。9月中旬，它在首都的中央青年宮舉行，爲了這件盛事，場地被修繕得煥然一新，出席開幕式的有政府官員、電影節代表團成員和各國使館的代表。官員們的轎車和載着表演團體的大客車擠滿了寬闊的停車場，身穿漂亮衣服的女人們涌入水泄不通的劇場，鞋跟發出的咔噠聲在大廳高高的天花板與四壁之間迴盪。開幕式上沒有提及聯合國的制裁與最近毀滅性的洪水。
The evening also introduced the five-member jury, all male, headed by Yuri Mityushin, a Russian citizen, formerly employed by the Russian Ministry of Internal Affairs, who currently runs a “law enforcement” film festival in Moscow. In previous years the festival has had jurors from Iran, Syria and China.
當晚還介紹了由五位成員組成的評審團，他們都是男性，由俄羅斯公民尤里•米秋申(Yuri Mityushin)領銜，他曾在俄羅斯內務部(Russian Ministry of Internal Affairs)任職，目前在莫斯科主辦一個有關“執法”的電影節。前幾年電影節曾經請過來自伊朗、敘利亞與中國的評委。
The opening ceremony concluded with the hosts, standing beneath a sculpted dove, announcing that the festival would showcase films from countries opposed to war and “aspiring to a beautiful and peaceful life.”
開幕式結束時，主持人們站在一尊鴿子雕塑之下，宣佈電影節將展播來自那些反戰並“渴望美好和平生活”的國家的電影。
The festival rarely features Oscar hopefuls or Hollywood stars; if a film is screening, it is probably promoting socialist values or patriotic sentiment. Guests then sat for the opening film, “A Quiet Outpost,” a jingoistic Russian war drama that was a paean to the military and ended with a gory 30-minute battle sequence.
這個電影節很少播放有望獲得奧斯卡獎的影片或由好萊塢影星主演的影片；能上映的電影很可能是宣傳社會主義價值觀或愛國精神的。之後，賓客們觀看了開幕電影《安靜的前哨》(A Quiet Outpost)，這是一部反映俄羅斯戰爭的情節劇，帶有沙文色彩，讚美軍隊，以30分鐘血腥的戰爭鏡頭告終。
During the eight-day program, 11 feature films vied for the Best Torch Award, and the jury was instructed to judge the films based on how well they symbolized the festival’s official theme — “Independence, Peace and Friendship” — and whether they articulated the ideology of juche, or self-reliance, developed by the country’s founding father, Kim Il Sung.
在爲期八天的電影節裏，將有11部長片角逐最高獎“火炬獎”(Best Torch Award)。評審團被告知，評審標準是影片是否很好地體現了電影節的官方主題“自主、和平，友誼”，以及它們是否強調了主體思想(juche)，也就是其國父金日成(Kim Il Sung)提出的自主原則。
The complete lineup was noticeably slimmer than in years past, with 60 films from 21 countries compared with more than 100 films at previous festivals. Germany, France and India were represented, but as in the past, films from the United States and South Korea were conspicuously absent.
今年的全部影片只有來自21個國家的60部電影，相比以往的100多部，明顯少了很多。今年的影片中包括來自德國、法國和印度的電影，但是和過去一樣，美國與韓國電影的缺席令人矚目。
The sole North Korean title in the feature competition, “The Story of Our Home,” was a drama apparently based on true events about a young college graduate who selflessly devotes herself to raising orphans and who wins accolades from the North’s leader, Kim Jong Un. Other entries from the North included an animated short and a slice-of-life documentary, “Prosperous Pyongyang.”
入圍長片競賽單元的唯一一部朝鮮影片名爲《我們家的故事》(The Story of Our Home)，據說是一部根據真實事件改編的故事片，講述一個年輕的大學畢業生無私奉獻，養育孤兒，最終贏得了朝鮮領導人金正恩的嘉獎。其他來自朝鮮的影片包括一部動畫短片，以及一部反映生活側面的紀錄片《繁榮的平壤》(Prosperous Pyongyang)。
For many international delegates, the primary attraction of the festival is the experience of watching films alongside North Koreans, despite an awareness that they are interacting with only a privileged section of Pyongyang society. Sitting in an auditorium with 2,000 people also often leads to more casual encounters than is otherwise possible in North Korea, where itineraries are tightly controlled and conversations with ordinary people are rare. The potential of initiating such dialogue in a society reeling from isolationism is also reason enough for many artists to want their work screened in the country.
對於許多國際代表團成員來說，這個電影節最大的誘惑力就是能夠體驗與朝鮮人一起觀看電影的感覺，儘管他們知道，自己接觸的只是平壤社會中的特權階層。在朝鮮，旅行日程受到嚴格控制，和普通人談話的機會非常少，因此，和2000個人一起坐在觀衆席裏往往能帶來比平日更爲輕鬆隨意的邂逅。在一個受困於孤立主義的國家展開這類對話的可能性足以令許多藝術家希望自己的作品在這個國家上映。
“A crowd’s high level of engagement is extremely heartwarming for a filmmaker,” said Nicholas Bonner, a British filmmaker whose “Comrade Kim Goes Flying” screened at the festival in 2012. “They respond very viscerally to what’s happening on the screen.”
“一羣人極爲專注地觀看影片，這對於電影工作者來說是非常溫暖的，”英國電影人尼古拉斯•伯納(Nicholas Bonner)說，他的《飛吧，金同志！》(Comrade Kim Goes Flying)曾在2012年的電影節上映。“他們對銀幕上發生的一切都有發自內心的反應。”
This year, after a full evening showing of “Baahubali: The Beginning,” an Indian fantasy epic in the vein of “The Lord of the Rings,” concluded with a cliffhanger, many North Koreans in the audience gasped and then lingered before leaving the auditorium.
今年的一個晚上，電影節放映了有着《指環王》(The Lord of the Rings)風格的印度奇幻史詩片《巴霍巴利王：開篇》(Baahubali: The Beginning)，影片以一個懸念結束，放映結束後，觀衆席中的很多朝鮮人都目瞪口呆，流連不去。
“Is this a true story?” one incredulous North Korean asked me.
“這是真實的故事嗎？”一個朝鮮人不敢置信，這樣問我。
“Please ask the filmmakers to submit the second part for the next festival,” said another, after learning that I was an Indian citizen. (The next festival is scheduled for 2018.)
“請讓這些電影人在下次電影節上把第二部送來，”另一個人聽說我是印度人後這麼說（下一屆電影節將於2018年舉行）。
The crowd at the conclusion of the festival expressed little surprise, by contrast, when the Best Torch Award went to the national entry, “The Story of Our Home,” and its star, Paek Sol Mi, was named best actress for what was her screen debut.
與之形成鮮明對照的是，對於電影節的最後結果，人們沒有表示出任何驚訝之情——最後“火炬獎”由國產片《我們家的故事》獲得，第一次出演電影角色的本片主演樸率美（Paek Sol Mi，音）獲得最佳女主角獎。
Film has always been important to the North Korean regime. Kim Jong Il, Kim Jong Un’s father, who died in 2011, was obsessed with cinema. His personal library was said to contain more than 20,000 foreign titles. He is said to have frequently visited sets to offer on-the-spot guidance, and he wrote a lengthy treatise, “On the Art of the Cinema,” in which he claimed creative work was “an honorable revolutionary task.” All North Korean artists are expected to read this tract and internalize its lessons.
對於朝鮮政權來說，電影一直都很重要。金正恩的父親，2011年去世的金正日(Kim Jong Il)迷戀電影。據說他的個人圖書館裏收藏了兩萬多部外國電影。此外，據說他經常訪問片場去做現場指導，他還寫過一篇很長的論文《論電影藝術》(On the Art of the Cinema)，文中認爲創作工作是“一項光榮的革命任務”。所有朝鮮藝術家都被要求閱讀這篇文章，把文中的教誨牢記在心。
Yet like the vast film studio and the glamorous festival, even that injunction seemed to have a Potemkin village aspect.
然而，就像那座大型影視城和光彩奪目的電影節一樣，就連這條規定似乎也帶有波將金(Potemkin)村莊的感覺。
Ri Won Bok, a 56-year-old actor who has starred in films like “Order No. 027” and been named a People’s Actor, one of the nation’s highest honors, said, “I read the book nearly every day.”
李元福(Ri Won Bok)是一位56歲的男演員，曾在《命令027》(Order No. 027)中出演角色，被授予人民演員稱號，這是該國的最高榮譽之一，他說，“我幾乎每天都讀這本書”。
But when asked to name his favorite lesson from it, he deliberated for a moment, as if he didn’t understand the question, before smiling and saying he couldn’t remember a specific one. After all, there were so many of them.
但是被問到他最喜歡的教誨內容，他慎重考慮了片刻，好像不理解這個問題，之後微笑着說自己想不起具體的哪一個了。畢竟，這本書提供了太多教導。
