Intercultural Perspectives on DAS RADIKAL BÖSE and THE ACT OF KILLING: Similarities and Dissimilarities in Coping with Trauma in Indonesia and Germany, in Southeast Asia and Europe

Abstract

This article offers a close reading of Das radikal Böse (The Radical Evil, Stefan Ruzowitzky, DE/AT 2013) and The Act of Killing (Joshua Oppenheimer, GB/DK/NO 2012), films that provide access to the same topic by focusing on different facets of it. In referring to historical events distant from each other in terms of timing, geography and religious associations, these filmic works draw on very different situations and contexts. But even then, something universally human can be detected. The thinking of Zygmunt Bauman and Emmanuel Levinas assists the exploration of three scenes in which perpetrators seem to break down when they realise what they have done to women and children.