Cultural Representation of Atrocity and Repentance

Abstract

Cultural representations relating to the commission of atrocities might contribute at least as much as the social, political and judicial approaches prominent in discussion of ‘peace and justice’. This article considers memorialisation of atrocity and conflict in the Balkan and Black Sea regions generally, and then proceeds to examine particular aspects of the issue in relation to film. This is done in three sections: the case for catharsis and repentance, as found in readings of Tengiz Abuladze’s Repentance; the troubled conscience that haunts perpetrators, discussed by reference to Evgenii Tsymbal’s treatment of mass murder in Ukraine during the Russian‐Soviet civil war; and the representation of ‘other worlds’ and escape as the victims’ response, in the context of the Yugoslav War of the 1990s.

Notes

[1] Thanks to Ambassador Robert Finn at Princeton University for offering interpretation and understanding on the representation of the Armenian genocide in Turkish literature.

[2] An image of the memorial is available online at: http://www.worldtopix.com/bosnianews 7apr2007.html

[3] I am grateful to James Gow for assistance on points here. He was involved in organising a joint Imperial War Museum–King’s College London–Foreign and Commonwealth Office commemorative conference to mark the tenth anniversary and, supposedly, British involvement, notably that of the Imperial War Museum, in July 2005, which should have marked the opening of the memorial room at Potočari, as well.

[4] Louis Menashe (1988: 49) suggests that the process of recognition and coming to terms was not what it might have been: ‘Even most of the enthusiastic Soviet press discussions of Repentance I have seen are less than candid and have a self‐congratulatory tone about them – “See, we now have been honest with our past; look at Abuladze’s film”.’

[5] The present section is based mainly on Evgenii Tsymbal, Interview by Milena Michalski, Moscow, July 1991, as well as her reading of the film, unless otherwise stated.

[6] ‘Secret obsessions’ (Evgenii Tsymbal in conversation with Julian Graffy), The Guardian, Sight and Sound, London Film Festival supplement, 1991, pp.13–15.