Le chaînon manquant d’un génocide. Autour de L’Image manquante (Rithy Panh, 2013)

Abstract

Rithy Panh’s The Missing Picture (2013) delves into a long-tradition conceit which originated in the Holocaust bibliography, that is: the non-representable. However, unlike the Holocaust, in the Cambodian case the images representing the genocide are even more scarce. Taking into consideration the pictures that have been used over the years to embody the genocide, this article proposes four categories of them according to their enunciation. Later, it interrogates the visual strategies used by the filmmaker in the said documentary. Recurring to an un-realistic imagery based on hand-carved clay figurines placed in a diorama-like setting and to a first-person hypnotic voiceover, Panh introduces an estrangement that paradoxically imbues the narrative with an emotional tone. From such a perspective, the article proceeds to a close analysis of three sequences, focusing on iconography, editing and use of footage. The articulation of all of them constitutes an original search of a visual and narrative lexicon destined both to escape from the cliches and to perform an exorcism from personal traumatic experience.