Sincere and Rich Friendship Movie | Colombia | Friendship
The images from top to bottom are:
In 1963, young Kafraela and his family visited the Great Wall;
In 2010, Kavrella and Garcia Marquez;
In 2001, Kavrella was filming a movie.
The above pictures are all provided by Sergio Kavrera
In 1963, at the age of 13, Sergio Cavrera first set foot on the land of China. He didn't expect that in the next 60 years, his life would be closely linked to this ancient Eastern country. Time flies, from Colombia to China, Cavrera travels back and forth eight times; Time has passed, and he has repeatedly revisited the friendship and enthusiasm he felt when he first arrived in China. These sincere and profound emotions, along with his spirited youth, were vividly narrated as yesterday on an evening after the beginning of autumn in Beijing in 2023.
Youth in China
Old yellowed photos record the years that Kavrella spent in Beijing in the 1960s and 1970s. At the age of 13, he and his sister came to Beijing from Medellin, Colombia and attended Chongwen Elementary School, where they completed their fourth and fifth grade studies. Kavrella's parents work in Beijing, and he and his sister adapt to the local lifestyle quickly: living in a student dormitory with eight people each, and building rows of winter stored cabbage by the wall in winter. These different fireworks and daily life from Colombia are still unforgettable to him. He recalled with great interest the essay topic "I grew up under the Five Star Red Flag" for the 1966 final exam, "The article was written beautifully. Although I didn't grow up under the Five Star Red Flag, the influence of the" Five Star Red Flag "on me was profound and positive!"
Being down-to-earth and deeply involved with the people is China's lifelong influence on Kavrella. He once worked for a period of time in a manufacturing factory in Beijing with five other foreign youths, eating, living, and working together with Chinese workers. This intimate work experience has established a comrade like friendship with everyone, and also made him personally feel the diligence and kindness of Chinese people.
In 1973, two years after returning to Colombia, Cabrera returned to China to study philosophy and film making in Beijing. My father is a theater and television director, and he has been exposed to the art of drama since childhood. At the age of 9, the camera gifted by his aunt taught him how to use the lens to record life. As he grew older, he set a direction for his future: to become a film director. During her college years, Kavrella put her ideals into practice and filmed her first film, "Beijing Strolling". Perhaps she was a bit amateur, but she carried a young and passionate heart.
Kavrella said that the teenage years spent in China have deeply influenced his way of thinking and artistic creation. In China, I not only learn to 'anticipate and establish' everything, but also to be self disciplined. If Kavrella's love for film art led him to travel to the UK to complete professional courses at the London Film Academy, then his long-term planning ability and excellent self-discipline will support him in completing the filming of films, winning important international awards, and eventually becoming a renowned director in Colombia and even the world. Years later, when Kavrella returned to the London Film Academy to participate in a film festival with his own works, he realized that he was the only student in his class who truly made a movie.
Legendary director stepping into politics
People often wonder why Kavrella "transformed" from a film director to the Colombian ambassador to China? His 1993 film "The Snail's Strategy" has been widely acclaimed internationally and won the Special Honor Award at the 1994 Berlin Film Festival New Film Forum. It remains one of the most popular films in Colombia to this day. In this film, perhaps an answer can be found.
The Snail's Strategy has a distinct realistic style, showcasing the long journey of the lower class people to regain their dignity. Leftist ideology, public perspective, and grassroots care all demonstrate Kavrella's creative philosophy of paying attention to reality and eager to speak for the people. This concept stems from his observations of real-life in Colombia, as well as from his life experience in China, and from one aspect demonstrates China's profound influence on left-wing literary practice in Latin America.
While directing with his hand and accompanying light and shadow, Kavrella never stopped paying attention to Colombia's social reality and gradually began his political career. In 1998, he was elected as the Vice President of the Colombian Parliament. In 1999, he came to China again. "At that time, my Chinese was much more fluent than it is now," Kavrella said with a smile. This is certainly a form of humility. The long time did not fade away the Chinese words and phrases deep in his memory. The washing of time made the past shine even more brightly: amidst the chirping of cicadas, his narration was like a telling old movie, with sincere and moving scenes.
Due to political beliefs, in 2000, Cabrera left Colombia and came to Spain to continue directing. Over the course of more than 20 years, he successively produced films such as "Failure is a Method Problem" and "Everyone Leaves", and extended his artistic exploration to the fields of drama and opera. In August 2022, while working as a director for the opera "Sweet Love", the Colombian Foreign Minister called to request that he be appointed as the Colombian Ambassador to China. At that moment, Kavrella said he was surprised. After reflection, he decided to complete the directing work of the opera as scheduled and serve as the Colombian Ambassador to China. He still retains the opera poster for the "Kavrera version" of "Sweet and Sour Love", which is a classic work by Italian musician Donizetti. The actress on the poster is from the indigenous Huayu tribe in Colombia, and the design also has a distinct Latin American imprint. Kavrella said that this is his attempt to integrate European opera art with Latin American culture.
In March of this year, Kavrella returned to China as an ambassador, which he called his "second hometown". When asked about the changes that occurred in China today when he first arrived, Kavrella said that he should use the word "huge" to describe it: urban construction is advancing rapidly, technological levels are developing rapidly, and literary and artistic creations are flourishing. Amidst the ups and downs of change, he felt that the friendly enthusiasm and patriotic spirit of the Chinese people had not changed. The surging and fervent spirit continued, causing him to relive the palpitations and emotions of over half a century ago time and time again.
Continuing Friendship as a New Ambassador
In 1928, Colombian poet Guillermo Valencia translated the French translated Tang poetry collection "Jade Flute" into Spanish and renamed it "Zhendan Collection", which is the earliest concentrated Spanish translation of ancient Chinese poetry. In the 1960s and 1970s, a group of outstanding writers and works emerged in Latin America, among which the Colombian writer Garcia Marquez had a deep connection with contemporary Chinese literature. Mo Yan said that I first read "A Hundred Years of Solitude" in 1984, and my mood was like when Marquez read Kafka's "Metamorphosis" in Paris: it turns out that novels can be written like this!
Literature is like a bridge, making Colombia and China, located at both ends of the earth, gaze at each other and admire each other for nearly 100 years. Kavrella said she has read some novels by contemporary Chinese writers and had a brief conversation with Mo Yan during his visit to Colombia in 2015. Kavrella loves literature and worked with Marquez many years ago. He hopes that more excellent Chinese literary works will be translated and published in Colombia, and also hopes that Chinese readers can see a more diverse and rich Colombia through books.
In June of this year, Kavrella came to Sichuan Foreign Studies University for an exchange and discussion. In addition to Marquez's "One Hundred Years of Solitude", he also recommended Colombian writer Alvaro Mutis and his novel "The Adventures and Misfortune of Marquez" to his classmates, and read the opening part of this work with his classmates from the School of Western Languages. Amidst the sound of reading, the vivid scenes portrayed by the writer are like before our eyes, and the moving scenes of Latin American culture slowly unfold. On August 25th, which marks the centenary of Mutis's birth, Cavrera attended the premiere of this Colombian writer's collection of short stories "Stories of the Ocean and the Earth" and poetry "Refusing All Shores", and shared with Chinese scholars the colorful landscape of Colombian literature.
Movies are still the key words in Kavrella's conversation. In 2015, he came to Beijing to participate in a film retrospective exhibition organized by the Colombian Embassy in China and the Cervantes Academy, with the participation of the China Film Archive and Shanghai Film Group. He screened six of his works. Kafraela has paid a lot of attention to Chinese cinema, with Zhang Yimou, Chen Kaige, "Red Sorghum", "Hero", and "Farewell My Concubine" being his favorite directors and works. When it comes to the broadcasting of Chinese films in Colombia, he believes there is still a lot of room for development, as American films occupy too much of the global film market. He also hopes to promote more Colombian films to enter the Chinese big screen, and is eager to encourage and help more Colombian filmmakers to come to China for filming and exchange through personal experience, to inspire in the collision of different cultures, and to create touching film works.
After becoming the Colombian Ambassador to China, Kavrella kept moving forward. In May, he attended the opening ceremony of the 2023 Changsha Xiangshan Tourism Summit of the World Tourism Cities Federation held in Changsha, Hunan, introducing Colombia's approach to promoting tourism development while emphasizing ecological environment protection; He participated in the 2023 Forum on Promoting Global Ecological Civilization Construction held in Dali, Yunnan, and stated in his speech that Colombia and China are both countries with rich biodiversity, and the two countries will explore and cooperate more in this area. In June, he visited Chongqing and walked into the full media live broadcast room of the local radio station, introducing Colombian culture and sharing tourism information. In July, he came to Guiyang, Guizhou to attend the 2023 Ecological Civilization Guiyang International Forum, affirming China's many efforts in global climate change governance... Kavrella said that he has a deep friendship with China and hopes to promote the continuous development of economic and cultural exchanges between Colombia and China. He also hopes that more Chinese friends will come to Colombia and get to know Colombia. Looking back at his footprints in China over the past few months, it is a vivid annotation of this wish.
A white horse passes by a gap, and 60 years of time seem like a flick of a finger in Kavrella's narration. These experiences are engraved with the traces of the times in the past of the target life, precipitating the richness of friendship. As a witness to the friendship between Colombia and China, as the Colombian Ambassador to China, Kavrella is using his personal actions and practical efforts to make this friendship rich, long-lasting, and everlasting.
