ISBN: 9781474400428

Paperback: 208 pages
Publisher: Edinburgh University Press, 2014
Language: English
Product Dimensions: 23.4 x 1.5 x 15.5 cm

This is a ground-breaking comparative treatment of cinematic images of atrocity, combining critical perspectives on contemporary film and human rights. A few days after 9/11, US Vice-President Dick Cheney invoked the need for the USA to work ‘the dark side’ in its global ‘War on Terror’. Cinema of the Dark Side explores how contemporary cinema treats state-sponsored atrocity, evoking multiple landscapes of state terror. Investigating the ethical potential of cinematic atrocity images, this book argues that while films help to create and confirm normative perceptions about atrocities, they can also disrupt those perceptions and build alternatives.