BISFF Correspondence 通信计划
This program involves conducting brief email interviews with the directors of the international films featured in the festival, in lieu of the traditional Q&A session that follows the screenings. Through this program, we hope to provide a platform for filmmakers to discuss their work and share their insights with our audience in China.
为了跨越种种障碍，开辟更多交流空间，我们设置了“BISFF Correspondence 通信计划”，对部分国际单元的参展作者进行系列访谈，这些访谈将在作品放映后发布在联展各个媒体平台。
The Banished One｜Molelekoa｜被放逐的人
Moso Sematlane
2024｜0:21:38｜Lesotho｜Sotho(Southern)｜World Premiere
Director: Moso Sematlane
Interviewer & Translator: Yu Qiao (Chelsea)
Coordinator & Editor: Suliko
导演：莫索·塞马特莱恩
采访、翻译：乔屿
统筹、编辑：苏丽珂
Q1: I'm thrilled you brought up James Baldwin; I greatly admire his writing as well. One scene where the protagonist stands atop a mountain reminds me of his novel Go Tell It on the Mountain. You also mentioned significant authors like Frantz Fanon. What roles do literature and reading hold in your life? How do they shape your artistic creations?
同为James Baldwin的书迷，很开心看到你在影片中提到他。主人公站上山顶的一幕让人想起他的小说《去山巅呼喊》。此外，片中还提到其他作家，如Frantz Fanon。阅读和文学经验曾给予你怎样的启发？它们如何影响你的艺术创作？
A1: For me reading has always been central in how I feed this constant and deep curiosity I have about the world around me. Through reading I can travel to other parts of the world and find out how other people think, as I think literature has a way of really capturing the consciousness of a person or whoever is writing it. I remember reading Go Tell It on the Mountain in my high-school years and even though I might have been too young to understand it properly, I think everything I read somehow sticks and stays in my subconscious mind. When I write or film something I find these influences have a way of bubbling to the surface. Reading is just one way I engage with the world around me on a deeper level, and I think cinema has enabled me to combine far-flung interests I have and in way, combine them into one thing, whether that’s music, or sounds, or poetry, or beautiful images.
对我来说，阅读一直是我满足自己对周围世界持续且深刻好奇心的核心方式。借助阅读，我可以游历世界其他地方，了解他人的想法。我相信，文学可以做到真正捕捉写作者的内心思想。我记得我在高中时读到了《去山巅呼喊》，尽管当时年龄小，无法完全理解它，但我觉得我读到的一切都以某种方式留在了我的潜意识中。当我写作或拍摄某样东西时，我发现这些影响会以某种方式浮出水面。阅读是我与周遭世界在更深层次上进行互动的一种方式，而电影促使我将广泛的兴趣结合起来——无论是音乐、声音、诗歌还是美丽的图像，然后把它们放在一样东西里。
Q2: The film investigates an important theme regarding the relationship between space and its ownership. It delves into the management, operation, and prospective development, particularly in the context of digitalization, of a city. What piques your interest in these political themes?
影片引出了城市空间和其统治、解释权的问题——包括数字化管理、政治运作以及未来的规划方向。你为什么对此类议题感兴趣？
A2: The architecture of any city, and the physical space it inhabits is something I am always interested in, particularly for a city like Maseru, which I live and grew up in. I am always really hyper-ware of how people interact with the spaces they live in, and how this interaction either changes the space itself or the people themselves. Historically speaking, spaces on the African continent are contextualized by colonialism or western development in the form financial aid in creating buildings like hospitals or even libraries. I find that, especially in Maseru this creates a porous idea of space that is then influenced by things like digitization of a city, and the anxiety that comes with that, how in the context of systems like capitalism or development, spaces don’t really belong to us as individuals. Especially if you live in poorer areas of Lesotho where your space can fall victim to ‘development’. I think my interest in even the politics in how we imagine space is caused by an awareness of how politics influences where people live, especially in Lesotho, and how they interact with the space around them.
我一直对城市建筑及其所在的物理空间很感兴趣，尤其是像马塞卢这样的城市，我就是在这里生活和长大的。我一直对人们如何与他们所居住的空间互动倾注强烈关注，并且想知道这种互动如何反作用于空间或者人们自身。从历史上看，非洲大陆上的空间结构于殖民主义或西方发展的背景，这个过程是依靠殖民者为其建造医院以及图书馆等建筑时提供财政援助来实现的。我发现，尤其是在马塞卢，它形成了一种多孔的空间概念——包括后期城市受到数字化改革政策的影响，以及这些变化带来的焦虑感受，即在资本主义或发展等制度背景下，空间并不真正属于作为无数个体的我们。尤其是如果你生活在莱索托的贫困地区，你所处的空间可能成为 “发展”的牺牲品。我之所以对空间想象中的政治感兴趣，是因为我意识到政治如何影响人们的生活，以及他们如何与周围的空间互动，尤其是在莱索托。
The Banished One, Moso Sematlane, 2024
Q3: What is your personal interpretation of the quote, “People are stuck in history, and history is stuck in people”?
你如何理解影片中出现的“人受历史所困，历史也受困于人”这句话？
A3: I think as people we are greatly susceptible to the ebb and flow of this machine that this history. We are doomed to repeat it, as we have seen often with wars or other world conflicts. My interpretation of this quote the character says in the film is just that, how we carry all the stories and lessons provided by history, even if it’s a history between two people in the form of romantic relationships, and how we either keep replicating this history with each new interaction or just learn from it in how we navigate other relationships. I think we are closely bound as people to the idea of history.
我认为，作为人，我们很容易受到历史这台机器的兴衰的影响。历史注定会重复上演，就像我们在战争或其他世界性冲突中经常看到的那样。我对片中角色说的这句话的理解就是，我们应当如何承载历史提供的所有故事和教训？哪怕这是一段只发生在两个人之间以恋爱关系形式呈现的历史，我们究竟是在每次新的互动关系中重蹈覆辙，还是从中吸取教训，以处理好其他关系？我认为，作为人，我们与历史的观念紧密相连。
Q4: An identity crisis encompasses more than just nationality, race, and sexuality; it also touches on the core existential dilemmas faced by humanity. For instance, as a creator, an individual may experience a crisis related to their own creations. The film raises questions about what sets an artist’s work apart from others. How would you respond to these inquiries?
身份危机不仅限于国别，种族以及性向，它同样触及人性中最根本的存在困境。比如，作为一个创作者必然会体验到某种程度的创作危机。片中同样问到，一名艺术家，与其他作者的根本不同是什么？你自己如何回答这些问题呢？
A4: This is an interesting question to me because I think it reflects on the sometimes complicated relationship I have with my own art. Sometimes I love it, sometimes I hate it. Sometimes I am scared of it, sometimes I grow annoyed or resentful of the demands it makes of me. I think it’s because I still find it a strange thing to be an artist in way because you rip out all these things from your heart and more often than not, present them to a public for either consumption or judgment. That’s a position I think that can often place you in an existential dilemma, especially if you see art, like I do, as a way to communicate your own unique experiences or viewpoint to the next person, and hope to find some connection or common ground.
对我来说，这是一个有趣的问题。它反映出了我与自己的艺术之间存在的复杂关系。有时我喜欢它，有时我讨厌它。有时我害怕它，有时，我对它向我提出的要求感到恼火或愤恨。我认为，这是因为我仍然觉得成为一名艺术家是一件很奇怪的事情——你把所有东西从你的内心深处掏出来，但通常条件下，是以供他人消费或评判的方式呈现在公众面前。我认为这种立场常常会让你陷入一种存在困境，尤其是如果你像我一样，把艺术创作看作是一种向他人传达你独特经历或观点的路径，并试图从中寻觅某种联结或共通点。
Q5: I found the scene engaging, with a man and a woman conversing together. The man poses questions, exploring profound themes such as life philosophy and avoiding a mundane existence. In contrast, the woman candidly admits that she knows she is among those who simply follow the daily routine. What do you think about their dialogue?
片中男人和女人对话的场景很有趣。男人提出了很多宏大的命题比如应多思考个人的人生哲学，尽量避免平庸的生活。而女人却非常坦诚地承认，她很清楚自己就是平凡大众中的一个。你如何看待二人谈话时的状态？
A5: I think this scene for me has always represented this push-and-pull I have between eschewing a ‘normal, stable’ life or something filled with thrill and adventure. I watched a documentary recently where one subject described the way she wants to live her life, or to be perceived, as ‘hell on weels’. I found it interesting, and maybe slightly terrifying how much I related to that statement. I don’t know if ‘a mundane existence’ as it debated in the film is something I could be truly happy with, and I think this scene for me was a way of wrestling with these themes and dichotomies. There is a fear that my own wandering spirit would ruin a stable way of life, in favour of something really unpredictable and fast-paced and I think this scene was my way of trying to reflect those feelings.
这个场景对我来说意味着两种选择之间的挣扎——究竟是选择“正常、稳定”还是充满刺激和冒险的生活？我最近看了一部纪录片，其中一位主角描述了她想要的生活方式，或者说，她希望别人认为她的生活是一种“地狱般的生活”。我觉得这很有趣，甚至非常认同她的感受。我不知道电影中讨论的“平凡的生活”能否使自己感到全然满意。这个场景刻画了与这两极思维搏斗的过程。我的确担心自己漫游的精神状态会毁掉生活稳定的那一面，转而追求某种完全不可预测和快节奏的东西。这个场景是我试图呈现这些困惑感受的一种方式。
The Banished One, Moso Sematlane, 2024
Q6: I wonder what happened to the two women who looked like they were a couple?
片中两位女性（伴侣关系）最后的结局是怎样的？
A6: I don’t think their coupling evolved into anything substantial because of the fear one of them had of leaving a certain way of life, a safe way of life, in favour of another one that was maybe more unpredictable and somewhat thrilling.
我认为她们的结合不会发展成任何实质性的关系，因为她们中的一个人害怕放弃某种安全的生活，因此很难选择去过另一种更难以预测、更刺激的生活。
Q7: Holding a suitcase, Molelekoa was exiled from the city alone without any explanation. However, that suitcase eventually showed up on the street. What does this suggest about the situation?
影片开头Molelekoa提着箱子离开了这座城市，踏上流放之路，而在片尾，为何他的箱子又出现在街道上？Molelekoa却不在？
A7: I was always interested in the cyclical nature of Molelekoa’s exile from the city, and in a way, how even when he is exiled, the city is something that is imprinted in his DNA and calls to him. This is my own interpretation of course, although that image is open to other interpretations, but the suitcase for me represented the city of Maseru itself, and how even when you choose it despite your exile, in the end it still ‘swallows’ you, or ruins you, and leaves you more destitute than even before the exile. It’s almost like the price you pay for patriotism or ‘love of the city’, which ultimately, is something that is without reward, and in fact, rewards you with more violence instead.
我一直对 Molelekoa 流放生涯中的“循环性”很感兴趣，某种程度而言，即便他过上了流亡生活，这座城市也是烙印在他DNA里的东西，时刻召唤着他。当然，这只是我个人的理解，虽然这个画面可以有其他的解释，但对我来说，手提箱代表了马塞卢这座城市本身。另一方面，即使你不顾流放仍然选择这座城市，它到底还是会“吞没”你，或者毁掉你，让你比流亡前更加一无所有。这几乎就像是你为爱国主义或“热爱这座城市”所付出的代价。最终，这种代价是没有回报的，更真实的情况是，回报你的反而是更多的暴力。
more information: https://www.bisff.co/selection/the-banished-one