肖塔

A hotbed of police brutality, anti-policeman aggression, inveterate racism and mob violence, a fictional Danish ghetto area entraps two white policemen in Danish filmmakers Frederik Louis Hviid and Anders Ølholm’s debut feature, ENFORCEMENT, whose original title SHORTA is an Arabic term for “police”.

Entering Venice Film Festival’s International Critics' Week sidebar, the film opens with a disquieting scene that presciently anticipates the George Floyd murder, a Muslim youngster is under duress by policemen and exclaiming “I can’t breathe!”. In the wake of this incendiary incident, with the said youngster is on life support, the Muslim neighborhood cries foul and bays for blood, and at that critical point, a pair of policemen Mike Andersen (Lohmann) and Jens Høyer (Sears) patrols in the sink area, when the animosity aggravates, they have to fight their way out of the hell-scape, but to what consequences?

The good-cop-bad-cop set-up is familiar, Mike is an out-and-out macho racist, hard-bitten, cynical and aggressive, while Jens is younger, leaner and compassionate, a level-headed guy whom you can count on. Their internecine smackdown is what’s in the cards, but after that, Hviid and Ølholm’s script foregrounds Mike’s change of viewpoint when he is stranded in a housing project, where he is saved by a Muslim nurse Abia (Saglanmak), who happens to be the mother of Amos (Zayat), the young Muslim he apprehends. So Mike is designed to find out Amos is not a tearaway but a talented footballer who cannot make it because of his race, and when two young Muslim kids coming to his rescue, what haunts your head is a wishful thinking: don’t let anything happen to the two good kids.

ENFORCEMENT falls by the wayside when the good cop Jens is subjected to a fatal mistake, so as to pull through the about-face plot device and obscure the two cops' apparent discrepancy. Only the director-duo’s tactic has no flair, it is leaden and arbitrary (like the coincidence-and-inexplicability-riddled plot), and a deal-breaking failing is that Muslims are treated as black-or-white ciphers (the radical rascals versus the good-hearted innocents), Hviid and Ølholm fails to fashion anything even remotely intelligent from the Muslim’s point of view, exactly because of their own white privilege, this is their blind spot. The film may sound and look like an inspiring story against racism, but it is tired and jaundiced, pandering to white Danes and not doing right by the ethnic group. Again, diversity should be enforced within every and each position of the business, otherwise, it is plain tokenism.

On the plus side, Hviid and Ølholm cut their teeth in concocting an arresting thriller with some style and gore (although the city-sprawling pandemonium is only glimpsed from afar or heard from the news channel), and Lohmann is rabid enough to make Mike repugnant and then kits himself up with a changed impression that isn’t feel far-fetched, yet Sears has far more screen charisma to leave you engrossing, unfortunately, his Jens starts as a hero (light literally refracting upon his head when he banters with Amos), but exits as a whimpering enigma, the comedown is dispiriting.

referential entries: Nicolo Donato’s BROTHERHOOD (2009, 7.8/10); Mathieu Kassovitz’s LA HAINE (1995, 7.5/10).

English Title: Enforcement

Original Title: Shorta

Year: 2020

Genre: Action, Crime

Country: Denmark

Language: Danish, Arabic

Directors/Screenwriters: Frederik Louis Hviid, Anders Ølholm

Music: Martin Dirkov

Cinematography: Jacob Møller

Editing: Anders Albjerg Kristiansen

Cast:

Jacob Lohmann

Simon Sears

Tarek Zayat

Özlem Saglanmak

Issa Khattab

Dulfi Al-Jabouri

Arian Kashef

Josephine Park

Rating: 6.7/10

丹麦这几年选材很大胆，可能是小国好拍片的缘故，片名“肖塔”在阿拉伯语里就是“条子”的意思，在大量的绿绿移民里面，这可算不上什么好词。 影片题材直接照搬“美国弗洛伊德事件”，0元大抢购也直接体现毫不避讳，但本片主要是聚焦在“两位肖塔”身上，新老警察组成二人组，老警察代表了欧洲高傲，强硬，传统的一面，年轻警员则代表了包容、接纳、权衡的一面。种族歧视根深蒂固，仇怨积累由来已久，警察手握国家授予的执法权力就是一根敏感的导火索。在移民问题凸显的欧洲，这片子非常的真实。

詹斯是一位道德感强烈的“好”警察，他的两名同事在值勤时，情绪擦枪走火，出手殴打一名穆斯林少年而引发族群衝突。虽说不是出手的当事人，但当时也在场的詹斯大可出面或至少出言制止同事，憾事便不会发生。除了两位亮眼的警察主角，片中第一男配角阿莫斯也是非常重要的角色。他不仅展现出詹斯应有的样子，也代表移民后裔即便什麽都不做，也可能惹祸上身的事实。

不过，虽然道德感强烈，但詹斯是个只想明哲保身的警察，事发后也迟迟不愿做笔录。不论是指认同事送他们去吃牢饭，还是扯谎为同事开脱，都不是他所乐见的。就连搭档麦克逮捕阿莫斯的粗暴，其实詹斯都有办法出手制止，他却都宁可噤声。但是，等到詹斯也面临情绪即将爆发的一刻，却是阿莫斯按著他的肩膀说：“没事，冷静，冷静就好。”阿莫斯彻底扮演詹斯应当能够做却没能做到的事。

电影《高校棋蹟》裡西洋棋队的老师对学生说：“这张桌子坐满有色人种，包括我，我们什麽都不做警察就会不请自来，你们知道吗？”虽说阿莫斯最后被逮捕是由于他对警车丢奶昔，但一开始被拦查只是因为阿莫斯看警车几眼而已，他也并非那群借事惹事的不良少年。同样的行为，白人做的话或许什麽事都不会发生，但移民后裔却得绷紧神经，随时准备面对警察盘查。

可是，《爆裂战警》并非只呈现出衝突的一面，也点出人性的良知。即使是警察主角裡带有种族歧视意识的麦克，在确保自己脱离暴民的威胁后，也不再为难对方，甚至叫他快走，毕竟他们都只是孩子。麦克与詹斯大打出手之后分道扬镳，没有枪的他在此时遇上混混中的其中一位，但看著没有攻击意图、手无寸铁的麦克，对方也只回报“没事”便掉头就走。不管是不良少年或警方，除了少数杀红眼的人之外，没有人真心想置对方于死地。

全片最令人动容也最揪心之处，便是最后詹斯误杀伊萨后，道德感强烈的他受不了自己捏造事实而苟活，决定死于暴民之手，显示出詹斯是一位无法昧著良心做事的警察，也让这半开放式的结局留下一点悲伤的色彩。

片中点出其实丹麦的歧视不只存在于警察对人民这种带有权力的上对下关係中，就连居民之间也互相怨怼。混混趁乱洗劫杂货店，每天警告、威胁客人，让杂货店门可罗雀；杂货店老闆虽对阿莫斯关爱有加，感觉也与他妈妈熟识，但家中成员对巴基斯坦移民存有偏见，认为他们整天惹麻烦，让整个社区陷入危险之中，造成店家没有生意。这些可能都是我们无从得知的欧洲现况，2010 年阿拉伯之春后，来自非洲、南亚与中东的难民人数激增，欧洲各国纷纷陷入移民危机，其中又以德国、丹麦与瑞典由于给予难民的待遇前后有所差别而造成更严重的对立与歧视。

以美国为主的国际维权运动“黑命关天（Black Lives Matter）”不但是一种抗争、一种诉求，更是表达非裔美国人成天活在恐惧当中。片中麦克与詹斯意见不合时，詹斯提到，不该有意外，每个人的生命都一样珍贵，却被麦克反问是否曾被人用枪指过。有的时候，并不是警察故意要执法过当或出手过重，而是没有退路或生命受到威胁后，唯有更强硬的抵抗才能确保自己看得到明天的太阳。后续当詹斯被不良少年拿枪指著，差点把持不住也犯下大错，便应证麦克对“恐惧”的描述，警察并非贪生怕死，只求今夜得以续命。

讲到警察，丹麦的确满喜欢拍摄以警探或警察为主题的电影，近几年包括《厄夜追缉令》与《悬案密码》系列等。《爆裂战警》与过去常见的警察题材作品不同的是，它并不是以非黑即白的“好警察、坏警察”二分法呈现，而是更为真实，让观众看到所谓的坏警察也有恻隐之心，也有原则；好警察也会犯错，也有私心。从伊萨与其他同样以成为警察为梦想志业的中东移民孩子来看，警察在一般移民心中的形象应该也不算太差。贪污、滥用职权、歧视的警察肯定有，但《爆裂战警》带观众看到警察执法时的无奈与为难。

最后，电影不忘在紧张刺激又严肃的氛围当中添加一点诙谐有趣的成分。作为一部欧洲电影，纳入足球再适合不过，片中甚至揶揄曾经是强权，但近期疲软的英超球队“兵工厂”，并举去年以前都为兵工厂效力的土耳其裔德国球员厄齐尔为例（Mesut Özil）。将欧洲的热门运动项目与电影想谈论的种族议题结合在一起，极为巧妙。电影后段甚至安排麦克至阿莫斯家，看到他“最佳球员”的奖盃，得知他的确是个球技精湛的好孩子，确实是因为他的移民身份而被踢出球队，其中的反差与讽刺令人鼻酸。

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