Page - 12 - in JRFM - Journal Religion Film Media, Volume 04/01

12 | Freek L. Bakker and Lucien van Liere www.jrfm.eu 2018, 4/1, 9–14 Look of Silence. The killings are retold in the discursive style of collective mem- ory but precisely this approach evokes the uncanny of cultural memory. OTHER APPROACHES In his film The White Ribbon, Michael Haneke has chosen to approach the origins of violence performed by Germans in the First and Second World Wars from a specific perspective. He takes his audience to a communal setting in the north of Germany on the eve of the First World War. His focus is on the generation of Germans who would “later” commit atrocities. He emphasizes childhood, for childhood is important, even decisive, for later behaviour. Haneke chose a village setting for his movie because at the start of the 20th century most Germans lived in villages. His film is in black and white, indicating that the nar- rative is about the past. He portrays the villagers of this period living in a hier- archical context in which some prominent citizens, such as the baron, minister, doctor and schoolteacher, set the course. The film shows a series of incidents, accidents and atrocities, cruel situations that seem to have been initiated by a group of village children, although who is in fact responsible remains unclear. Moreover, the initiators of the attacks go unpunished. That point is made even more strongly when, at the climactic moment, with one or two of his children under strong suspicion, the minister refrains from punishing them, even though he conducts a veritable reign of terror over his children. There is discipline, but at the same time there is disorder and injustice. The discipline claims to be just, yet injustice prevails, or more importantly even, insecurity dominates. Given the prominent role of the minister and his children, the church, or religion, is part of this system. In spite of the weekly sermons given by the minister, which are not screened, religion is not able to halt injustice in the village. Remarkably, the only sermon that is depicted is given by the baron. Is Haneke’s message that religion is powerless in the face of the atrocities of war? Or is the role of religion ambiguous? The film also poses another stimulating question: did the perpetra- tors subsequently act violently because of their earlier traumatic experiences, the traumas they had lived in their childhoods? Certainly, Haneke’s film is an interesting effort to understand perpetration as more than individual’s choice. RELIGION In all three films, the human experiences discussed in this special issue in some way relate to a religious worldview. The White Ribbon reflects a culture in which Protestantism prevails. In The Act of Killing we are confronted with a world in which the main protagonist is afraid of the ghosts of the dead. He asks if he has sinned, and he explicitly states that he fears the judgment of God at the end of