Page - 7 - in JRFM - Journal Religion Film Media, Volume 04/01

Editorial | 7www.jrfm.eu 2018, 4/1, 9–14 Freek L. Bakker and Lucien van Liere Trauma, Memory and Religion in Film Editorial On 29 October 2015, the Dutch research group Moving Visions / Film and Religion held a symposium entitled “Trauma, Memory and Religion in Film” at Utrecht University, the Netherlands. During this meeting, two films were screened and discussed: The Act of Killing (Joshua Oppenheimer, GB/DK/NO/ 2012) and Das radikal Böse (Stefan Ruzowitzky, DE/AT 2013). The principal objective was to look for possible relationships between memory, trauma and religion in two completely different world regions, Indonesia and Europe, based on portrayals of these themes in the two films. These regions differ greatly not only in climate and landscape, but also in culture and religion. It seemed possible that by scru- tinizing these differences we would encounter something universal, something common to all human beings. Yet we must be careful not to jump to conclu- sions. We hope this special issue will offer new analyses of, and thus new insight into, this topic. During the preparation of this special issue we recognized that examination of Michael Haneke’s Das weisse Band / The White Ribbon (DE/AT/FR/IT 2009) would contribute to a comprehensive reflection on these themes. This volume therefore also presents an analysis of this film. Before we introduce the articles to our readership, we provide a short reflec- tion on what it means to screen trauma. We then take note of the approach fol- lowed by Haneke in his The White Ribbon, as it is different from the approaches employed in the other two films. Haneke’s movie does not explicitly deal with trauma. Our focus then turns to the role of religion in the three films discussed. Finally, we provide a short introduction to the four articles discussing these sub- jects. SCREENING TRAUMA How can we screen trauma? This question might lead the perception of doc- umentary movies about atrocities in the 20th and 21st centuries, like S21 The Khmer Rouge Killing Machine (Rithy Panh, CAMB/FR 2003) about Cambodia, The Look of Silence (Joshua Oppenheimer, ID/DK 2014) about Indonesia or Das radikal Böse about Nazi-Europe. The first concern emerge as we watch mov- DOI: 10.25364/05.4:2018.1.1