Page - 12 - in JRFM - Journal Religion Film Media, Volume 02/02

12 | Stefanie Knauss www.jrfm.eu 2016, 2/2, 9–14 the exploitation of others for one’s own gains, and yet they are not satisfied with the criticism of what is, but also show imaginatively what might be when hope emerges from the possibility of human beings to resist dehumanizing dy- namics, to relate to their situation freely, and to find means to transform it in smaller or larger ways. The ethical dimension of the Dardennes’ cinema is not limited to the narra- tive representation of issues of ethics and social justice. Joseph Mai underlines the use of a specific style of filmmaking that serves to create “an ethical space” in cinema8 in which viewers become involved in a relationship of solidarity with the characters, a style that creates empathy without being overwhelming, that encourages reflection without providing the answers. In this issue, Guanzini de- scribes this style as a combination of proximity and opacity, created for exam- ple through the typical over-the-shoulder shots (often in close-ups) in which the camera follows a character from behind and slightly to the side, showing the back of their head or a half profile. This shot design results in a feeling of close- ness with the character, yet does not provide a complete point-of-view shot, and thus furthers identification with a character at the same time as it inhibits such identification: as viewers, we can only guess the feelings and motivations of the person we are (nearly) aligned with and whom we observe closely, but who ultimately remains a stranger to us. As Walter Lesch’s discussion of the influence of the philosopher Emmanuel Levinas on the work of the Dardennes, and in particular Luc Dardenne’s own philosophical contributions, shows, it is precisely the stranger as the other who poses an ethical challenge to us – that we respect them in their otherness and take responsibility for them in their shared destiny of mortality. This ethical commitment evident in the work of the Dardennes, described as “responsible realism” by Philip Mosley in his monograph on the Dardennes or as “the artistic gift of humanism without illusions and of realism without cyni- cism” by Lesch in this issue, is given substance by their attention to the capacity of the material for transcendence that I have discussed above. These modes of searching for the human interconnect and enrich each other, enabling the direc- tors to combine their critical realism with a vision of how to be human within the material conditions of existence and the dynamics of interaction that have both the potential to inhibit human flourishing and the capacity for transforma- tion. The three articles in the open section pursue different themes. Alyda Faber offers a reading of Frederick Wiseman’s documentaries through the lens of the concept of parable as “unstory” and as a moment of disrupting logical, line- ar explanations of reality. As she argues, parables create visceral reactions in 8 Mai 2010, 62.