Mise en scène de la mémoire d’un génocide: images dialectiques et lisibilité de l’histoire

This article proposes an analysis of the film The act of killing (Joshua Oppenheimer, 2012), articulating concepts such as cinematic meta-narrative (Stam 1981; 2015), dialectical images (Benjamin, 2006; 2018), and legibility of history (Didi-Huberman, 2000; 2012; 2018). The documentary film is abou...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Letícia Capanema
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Università di Napoli Federico II 2020-12-01
Series:Funes
Online Access:https://serena.atcult.it/index.php/funes/article/view/7468
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Summary:This article proposes an analysis of the film The act of killing (Joshua Oppenheimer, 2012), articulating concepts such as cinematic meta-narrative (Stam 1981; 2015), dialectical images (Benjamin, 2006; 2018), and legibility of history (Didi-Huberman, 2000; 2012; 2018). The documentary film is about a group of men who participated in the anti-communist mass killing that occurred in Indonesia in 1965/66. In order to problematize the Indonesian genocide memories, the film applies a meta-narrative strategy: the former perpetrators reenact their crimes in front of the cameras by appropriating their favorite Hollywood genres. The scheme film-within-the-film, mixing facts and fiction, exposes a dubious heroic status of the former executioners and a crime confession by an auto-mise-en-scène. The analysis explores narrative, aesthetic and discursive aspects, exposing a dispute that involves an (re)interpretation of the violent past of Indonesia, making possible the (re)constitution of self-identities in the present and an (re)orientation for the future.
ISSN:2532-6732