Abstract
Through an analysis of Christian Petzold's films, this essay argues that there is an ethical dimension to images. The cinema of Christian Petzold is an important instance of the ethical function of images because it constantly negotiates and renegotiates the ethical intelligibility of the image and the ethical claims that images make on us. The essay's argument is developed in three stages: first, it outlines the theoretical concept of an image‐ethics of dilemma, centering on the essential ambiguity of images; second, it briefly considers the function of particular multistable images in Petzold's cinema and their role in ordering representation in his films; and, finally, it offers a close analysis of Petzold's recent film Barbara ().
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