11/08/2023
We are each victim and perpetrator in the systems we are held. This is both a subtle and explicit theme in a range of films at this years DokuFest.
Theatre of Violence, the story of the trial of a former Lords Resistance Army commander, by Emily Langballe and Lukasz Konopa, tackles this duality head on. Dominic Ogwen, abducted at the age of nine by the Lords Resistance Army is in the International Criminal Court facing charges of crimes against humanity for the role that he grew into in this brutal system. The film leaves open questions of victim and perpetrator not only in the individual case of Ogwen but also in the case of the Lords Resistance Army and the system of state oppression in Uganda that spawned it.
The theme of victim and perpetrator is also present, though less explicitly, in films like Motherland. This darkly cinematic story by Alexander Mihalovic and Hanna Badziaka opens the door into current day Belarus. Telling the story of the cycle of abuses carried out within and by the military. Where choices are between bad and worse. A poignant early scene sees a cat looking with intent at a box of delicate chirping chicks. It reminds us that unlike us, a cat can only be a cat.
The Mother of All Lies, a magically realised tale of heartbreaking tragedy by Asmae El Moudir, shows us oppression within oppression. The severe central figure's control and dictatorship both hurts and protects in a time of challenged memory. The distorted clay models through which the story is told, reminding us of the manipulation that can be exerted on memories.
Stuntwomen was a rare almost uplifting film in the programme, by Elena Avdija. In this story of Stuntwomen the victims' role as perpetrators is most subtle. Although the victims they play are fictional the sexist system that creates and writes their victimhood is deep and insidious. Their role in the representation and replication of this victimhood on the one hand shines a light on it and on the other models and normalises and perpetuates it. We get what we talk about and what we see.
Documentary should move us. Not just to take us out of our everyday and the worlds we know but also to move us to action. These films and many more in the DokuFest's diverse programme bring to light the very systems in which we are held, and in which we all become both victim and perpetrator. It's time we see more clearly that the individual is in thrall to the systems - whether that system is be fascist, sexist, capitalist, racist, colonialist etc. These systems limit our choices and dictate norms. So when we peel back the focus on individual responsibility - that systems of oppression rely on - we recognise these acts are symptoms of systems. Systems that can change. The question that we're left with is which ones do we change, and how?
By: Mike Elm
Photo: Agon Dana
