Trauma and post-traumatic stress disorder in film

Abstract

From its inception film art was intended to be a generally precise replica of reality, not only in the sense of visual performance, but also by imitating feelings and emotions. This article reviews the historical and political involvement of films with the theme of trauma or post- traumatic stress disorder, and also deals with how a viewer experiences the film as a traumatic event. Additionally this article also examines how society reacts to traumatic events (e.g. war or a terrorist attack) and how this is reflected in cinema­tography. In the last part we present a hypothesis about how a film can be considered a traumatic event and how we willingly let ourselves be traumatised through watching it.