The Method of Structural Compilation and the Aspects of Documentary Representation in Images of the World and the Inscription of War

The text examines three fundamental conceptions of Images of the World and the Inscription of War, the central and perhaps the most renowned work of German film essayist and archaeologist Harun Farocki. On the basis of an analysis of photographic procedures constituting the structural framework of the film, we focus on the aspects of compilation films, on the question of gestural cinema and the problem of film essays as specific variants of approaching the discussion of Farocki’s creative principles. The main attention is given to the question of the (im)possibility of a documentary representation of the horrific historical facts of death camps and the aspects of the “dehumanisation” of its victims which cannot be directly expressed in an image – without doing violence to the victims and subjecting them to dehumanisation all over again.

The integral version of this article can be found in the printed KINO!