Artist's Statement
Between September 16th and 18th, 1982, for two nights and three days, the killers of Sabra and Shatila went about their heinous crimes. In the end, they had murdered a large number of the inhabitants of the camps, mainly Palestinian civilians.
The precise number of victims – both those killed and those missing – is not known to this very day. The perpetrators primarily originated from the ranks of the Forces Libanaises, the Christian militia affiliated to Israel. The Israeli Army, under the auspices of the former Minister of Defence and Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, was also involved.
In 1982, the massacre in the Lebanese Palestinian camps of Sabra and Shatila deeply shook the public throughout the world, but today it has been (almost) entirely forgotten. This is despite the fact that it is a role model for all the massacres that followed: for example that in Rwanda or those committed during the Yugoslavian wars. Again and again, the unanswered questions surface: what drives people to such excesses of brutality, and how are the perpetrators able to live on?
Massaker is – both in contents and aesthetically – a psycho-political study of six perpetrators, who participated in the massacre of Sabra and Shatila both on orders and on their own personal initiative. The film intertwines the mental dispositions of the killers with their political environment and broaches the phenomenon of collective violence through their accounts.
Without truly wishing to reconstruct the massacre of Sabra and Shatila, Massaker shows – with the interwoven narratives of the six protagonists – a version of the massacre that has not been publicised to date: that of the perpetrators.
Massaker focuses on the truth, not on accusation, moral lecturing or commentary. The decision to allow the perpetrators, and only the perpetrators, to speak may leave the makers open to attack, but their accounts are not.
Monika Borgmann
2009
Massaker is – both in contents and aesthetically – a psycho-political study of six perpetrators, who participated in the massacre of Sabra and Shatila both on orders and on their own personal initiative. The film intertwines the mental dispositions of the killers with their political environment and broaches the phenomenon of collective violence through their accounts.
Without truly wishing to reconstruct the massacre of Sabra and Shatila, Massaker shows – with the interwoven narratives of the six protagonists – a version of the massacre that has not been publicised to date: that of the perpetrators.
Massaker focuses on the truth, not on accusation, moral lecturing or commentary. The decision to allow the perpetrators, and only the perpetrators, to speak may leave the makers open to attack, but their accounts are not.
Monika Borgmann
2009
Related Events
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21.11.09 – 20.02.10
Manarat Al Saadiyat, Abu Dhabi
