In a scene from “Zoo,” a film based on a true story, John Paulsen plays Mr. Hands, the Internet handle of a 45-year-old man who died in 2005 in Washington State after a sexual encounter with a horse.

Film Takes a Lyrical Approach to a Shocking Subject

張佑生譯

西雅圖導演羅賓森狄佛的新片「戀獸慾」今年元月參加〔東京〕日舞影展時，更為人知的稱號是「與馬性交的紀錄片」。但當影展觀眾發現，此一描述並無不妥時，也發現有所誤導。影片重現2005年7月華盛頓州郊區一名男子與馬性交後喪命的真實事件，抒情處理風格與煽情的內容大異其趣。

“Zoo,” the new film by the Seattle director Robinson Devor, arrived at the Sundance Film Festival in January better known as “the horse sex documentary.” But as festival audiences discovered, this description, while not incorrect, was also misleading. The film revisits the true story of a man who died in July 2005 after a sexual encounter with a horse in rural Washington State but does so with a lyricism startlingly at odds with the sensational content.  

「這不是人們願意思考的議題，」狄佛在日舞影展受訪時，總結行銷本片所遭遇的挑戰，及自己和編劇搭檔查理穆狄德非拍本片不可的原因。

“This topic is not something people want to think about,” Mr. Devor said in an interview at Sundance, summing up both the challenge of marketing the film and the reason he and his writing partner, Charles Mudede, were compelled to make it.  

穆狄德在首映會稱「戀獸慾」是一場「思想實驗」。他補充說明：「如果有人肉體上能達到某種境界，我就能在精神上達到那種境界。」

Speaking at the premiere Mr. Mudede called “Zoo” a “thought experiment.” He added, “If someone can go there physically, I can go there mentally.”   

沉思人獸背離傳統的雜交，「戀獸慾」本身也是奇異的混合物：一部有事實根據的影片結合傳聲見證和推測性的事實重建，特色是混雜演員及實際行為人。（影片名稱是戀獸慾者的次文化術語，指對動物的愛護有時延伸到肉體層面。）

Contemplating an unorthodox merging of man and beast, “Zoo” is itself an exotic hybrid: a fact-based film combining audio testimony with speculative re-enactments that feature a mix of actors and actual subjects. (The title is the subcultural term for a zoophile, a person whose affinity for animals sometimes extends to the carnal.)   

「戀獸慾」迂迴重建了兩個夏季之前發生在西雅圖地區的那個要命的夜晚，後來引發媒體瘋狂報導的事件。被載往華盛頓州艾蒙卡拉的一間急診室後沒多久，名為肯尼斯．賓揚的45歲波音工程師，影片只以他在網路上的綽號「雙手先生」稱呼他──死於結腸穿孔的內傷。警方調查指向一間農場，並起出數名男子和農場阿拉伯種馬性交的錄影帶及DVD。人獸交當時在華盛頓州並不違法，但賓揚案發生後，州參議會去年表決將人獸交列為犯罪行為。

“Zoo” obliquely recreates the events of the fateful night that caused a media frenzy in the Seattle area two summers ago. Shortly after being dropped off at an emergency room in Enurnclaw, Washington, a 45-year-old Boeing engineer named Kenneth Pinyan － known in the film only by his Internet nickname, Mr. Hands － died of internal injuries resulting from a perforated colon. The police investigation led to a farm and uncovered videotapes and DVDs that showed several men engaging in sexual acts with the resident Arabian stallions. Bestiality was not illegal in Washington at the time, but in response to the Pinyan incident the State Senate voted last year to criminalize it.

狄佛和西雅圖周刊「陌生人」專欄作家穆狄德，注意到圍繞整起事件的新聞報導及輿論口徑一致，令人不安。

Mr. Devor and Mr. Mudede, a columnist for the Seattle weekly The Stranger, noticed a disturbing uniformity in news coverage and public opinion surrounding the case.  

「似乎有兩種反應：憎惡或訕笑。」穆狄德說：「人們不想跟這些男人有任何牽扯或認同感。老羅和我很早就彼此告訴對方：我們要重新喚起他們的人性。」

“There seemed to be two responses: repulsion or laughter,” Mr. Mudede said. “People didn’t want to have any connection or identification with these men. Early on Rob and I said to each other, ‘We’re going to revive their humanity.’”  

「戀獸慾」讓死者的友人成為揭秘工具，並在他們坦白說明慾望和獲得滿足的秘密世界中，勇於發現某種不可思議的美，甚至給予認可。

“Zoo” allows the friends of the dead man a means for disclosure and dares to find, in their candid accounts of their desires and the hidden worlds where they were fulfilled, something strangely beautiful and even recognizable.  

「迷人的是有這麼一群密友，在似乎完全陌生的周遭事物中，仍產生基本的人類互動。」穆狄德說。這裡浮現出描繪一群男人的寫照，悲傷，甚至敏感柔弱。這群男人偶爾在農場碰面，喝雞尾酒，看電視，到穀倉和馬性交。

“Zoo” allows the friends of the dead man a means for disclosure and dares to find, in their candid accounts of their desires and the hidden worlds where they were fulfilled, something strangely beautiful and even recognizable.  

影片中非戀獸慾的觀點由珍妮愛德華茲提供，她是當地一個叫做「給馬希望」的救援機構創辦人，她協助調查賓揚案中動物可能受虐的情形。「我還不是很清楚對那件事的感覺，」她在影片中談到戀獸慾者宣稱對動物的強烈感覺時如此表示：「但我已經站在能夠理解的邊緣。」

“It was fascinating that there was a community of close friends, that there were basic human interactions happening alongside things that seemed completely alien,” Mr. Mudede said. What emerges here is a sad, even tender portrait of a group of men who met from time to time at a farm, where they would drink cocktails, watch television and go to the barn to have sex with horses. The film’s nonzoophile perspective is provided by Jenny Edwards, the founder of a local rescue organization called Hope for Horses, who helped investigate potential animal abuse in the case. “I don’t yet quite know how I feel about that,” she says in the film, refer- ring to the intense feelings that zoophiles claim to have for animals, “but I’m right at the edge of being able to understand it.”      

「戀獸慾」引領觀眾走到瀕臨理解的岩架上，靠的不是過於拘謹審慎，或狄佛出於必要而大量引用色慾的拍攝手法。故事主角已經身亡，他的家人不想跟影片有任何牽連。三名受訪的戀獸慾者只有一人同意在重建事件中亮相。所有人均僅以網路稱呼為名：土狼、H和快樂騎師。

“Zoo” invites the viewer out onto that ledge of near comprehension. That it does so with neither squeamishness nor prurience owes much to Mr. Devor’s approach, one that was born of necessity. The story’s central figure was dead, and his family wanted nothing to do with the film. Only one of the three zoophiles interviewed agreed to appear in the re-enactments. All are identified simply by their online names: Coyote, H and the Happy Horseman.   

土狼是唯一在影片中現身的戀獸慾者，在最近一次電子郵件訪問中表示，與狄佛見過幾次面後終於相信他。他寫道：「我的直覺是他不會拍一部剝削型的影片。」

Coyote, the only zoophile who appears in the film, said in a recent e-mail interview that he came to trust Mr. Devor after meeting him a few times. “I felt in my gut he was not going to make an exploitive type of movie,” he wrote.   

但土狼對自己的參與仍感到衝突與苦惱：「我一點也不認為拋頭露面有什麼好的。」他說：「我們沒有傳承要背負，也沒有辯解的理由。我們只想做自己。」

But he remains conflicted about his involvement. “I do not think a higher profile is good at all,” he said. “We have no torch to bear or cause to defend. We just want to be.”

By DENNIS LIM  

【2007-04-14/聯合報/C4版/教育】