When it comes to prison-related movies, I'm afraid nine out of ten people think of The Shawshank Redemption. This legendary film about prison life has become a symbol in the history of world cinema, and it has become a source of imagination about prison life in many people's minds, and you may think that the prison life in "The Shawshank Redemption" is already very bad, but in fact, it is already very artistic and beautified. In 2018, the Uruguayan movie "Dungeon Memories" was released, and compared to this movie, you will find that the protagonist Of The Shawshank Redemption, Andy De Vryan, simply lives in paradise.
Before talking about this film, I would like to mention one person first: Jose Mujica. In November 2009, at the age of 74, José Mujica won the general election and became president of Uruguay the following year. After taking office, he refused to stay in the government residence but still lived on his farm, driving a small broken car to and from work every day, escorting only two bodyguards and a dog, and most of his salary was donated by him, and he was named "the poorest president in the world", and the US "Foreign Affairs Magazine" named him one of the five most influential people in Latin America for two consecutive years.
The seemingly ordinary old man was full of legends during his presidency, and none of this was as legendary as what he experienced when he was young. In 1973, as part of the "Tupamaros" guerrilla group opposed to the military dictatorship, José Mujica and two other comrades were "treated specially" by the prison, but they were no longer kept in ordinary cells like ordinary prisoners, but were imprisoned separately, forbidden to talk to everyone, and even the most basic human rights of sleeping and eating were deprived. It was not until Uruguay regained its freedom after democracy was restored in 1985. The film "Dungeon Memories" is about the pain and long prison life of the three people.
As a person living in the Internet age, it is hard for me to imagine what it would be like to lose my freedom for twelve years, not to mention that these thirteen years are full of all kinds of inhuman torture. In the film, we can see that the three protagonists have been transferred to custody time and time again in the past twelve years, from the dark dungeon to the rat-filled abandoned warehouse, they can hardly communicate with any outsiders, sometimes by knocking on the wall, more often they can only fall into dead silence, even the most basic human rights of sleeping, eating, and going to the toilet are sometimes deprived.
I felt that I would go crazy for a few days without being able to survive in this situation, and that death would have become a gift in this situation, and that was what the Uruguayan military junta wanted at the time. Under pressure from the international community, they could not execute them, so they tried their best to torture them and drive them crazy.
But fortunately, despite twelve years of inhuman life, the three of them still survived with strong willpower to maintain their sanity. Although this is a film full of pain, there is no shortage of bright and joyful scenes. When you can't break through the fence physically, you try your best to break through the barriers, and when they find that they can communicate with each other by knocking on walls, this becomes their weapon against loneliness and madness. In the film, we can see that they even play chess by tapping on the wall to relieve their boredom, just like two people sitting on the street playing chess in reality, sometimes they are red in the face because they can't afford to lose, but when the camera gives them hands, we see their hands that have already worn through all the joints because they hit the wall.
There is also a scene in the film where the guards put one of the hands of One of the three people, Hu Daobro, on the toilet pipe because he wants to defecate, but the problem is that Hu Daobro cannot squat and cannot defecate. He wanted the guards to loosen his handcuffs a little, but the reply was that there was no authorization, and he had no choice but to tell the soldiers not to let him squat, and he could only pull everywhere. So, in order to solve the problem of authorization that made him loosen his hands and defecate, the guards found the corporal, the corporal found the sergeant, the sergeant found the lieutenant... By the end, the entire toilet was packed with officers from top to bottom, unable to solve the problem of "opening the prisoner's handcuffs so that he could squat and defecate", and the final scene was unbearable and absurd.
Like Márquez's One Hundred Years of Solitude, Dungeon Memories is full of magical sensations unique to the South American continent, where you can see both the absurdity and grotesqueness of the world and the powerful spiritual power of seemingly weak people in the face of adversity.
But even in such a dark story, we can still glimpse a glimmer of humanity. Because of his literary talent, rosenkaoff, another of the three, got a job after the transfer in 1977, helping the sergeant of the local prison write love letters, so he integrated his feelings and thoughts about his lover into it, and wrote a series of passionate and touching love letters. And the sergeant was not a ruthless jailer, he brought rosenkauf food, exchanged his emotional problems with him, and even deliberately turned up the volume of the radio while listening to the football broadcast, so that the three people in a desperate situation were mentally comforted. But the good times did not last long, and it did not take long for them to be transferred again.
Yet fate is full of magic. In 1982, when they were once again transferred, Rosenkopf was surprised to find himself once again on the sergeant's turf, and the ring on the sergeant's hand showed how much of a help he had played. Rosenkauff smiled when the sergeant asked what could help him, and on a sunny day he was taken to the playground of the prison, along with Josemushica and Hudobro.
This time, the three of them finally saw each other's faces again after ten years, they neither cried nor hugged each other, but watched each other smile quietly, and then bathed in the sun and breathed in fresh air, and finally quietly drunk in the sun. At this time, the background music reminded me of the female voice's "Sound of Silence", and I couldn't control my tears at all.
The birds in the sky do not know what freedom is, the fish in the sea do not know what freedom is, and we who can sing freely do not know what freedom is, but when silence comes and all things are not allowed to speak, you can understand what true freedom is, and those whispers in the darkness are the flames that support people waiting for the dawn to come, weak but firm. Rosenkaw, Jose Mujica and Hudaubro survived the darkest days of their lives with their strong and strong willpower, telling the world through their own personal experiences that if they persist, hope will come.
After watching this movie, I thought of the index finger's poem "Believe in the Future", which has supported countless people through that dark time, and there are many parts that are consistent with the content expressed in the movie "Dungeon Memories", so I would like to use this poem as the end of this article.
"Believe in the Future"
Author: Index finger
When the cobwebs mercilessly sealed my furnace,
When the smoke of the ashes sighs the sorrow of poverty,
I still stubbornly lay the ashes of disappointment,
Write with beautiful snowflakes: Believe in the future.
When my purple grapes turn into late autumn dew,
When my flowers snuggle in someone else's affection,
I still stubbornly use the withered vines of frost,
Write on the desolate earth: Believe in the future.
I'm going to use my finger to the waves that are pouring into the sky,
I will use the palm of my hand, the sea that holds up the sun,
The warm and beautiful pen shaft that swayed the dawn,
Write in your child's pen: Believe in the future.
The reason why I firmly believe in the future,
It is the eyes of people who believe in the future
She has eyelashes that sweep away the dust of history,
She has the pupils to see through the chapters of the years.
Regardless of people's rotten flesh and skin,
Those lost sorrows, the pain of failure,
It is a tear of emotion, a deep sympathy,
Or give a contemptuous smile, a pungent taunt.
I firmly believe that people have a backbone for us,
That countless explorations, lost, failures, and successes,
Will be given a warm, objective, impartial assessment,
Yes, I waited anxiously for their assessment.
Friends, firmly believe in the future,
Believe in indomitable efforts,
Believing in the youth who overcome death,
Believe in the future and love life.