Memory and Survival in L’Image Manquante

Abstract

The article seeks to invest in the representation of the heinous and (in) translatability of representations of the genocide from the discussions around the film L'Image Manquante. It uses, as main methodology, filmic analysis in the context of the production of the cinematographic discourses and in the narrative of the author, Rithy Panh, in its process of constructing images elaborated by the unusual figurations. In the film, such developments establish a relationship with the issue of memory, drawing on the animation to follow the horror narrative in the Khmer camps and at the same time describe the individual experience of an autobiography on concentration detention. As main results obtained, the following notes stand out from the film analysis: (a) inseparability between the filmic flow and traumatic event; (b) cinematographic experience and personal narrative; (c) narrative construction and importance of the criticality of the image in the filmmaker's cinema.