Liminal Visions: Cinematic Representations of the German and Korean Divides

Abstract

Drawing upon recent debates in border studies and classical examinations of spectatorial identification, Williams explores the depiction of inner-national borders in films dealing with both the German and also the Korean divides. The four films analyzed are from unified Germany and South Korea, and reveal the ideological issues at stake in capitalist representations of the communist “other.” The objects of study are Margarethe von Trotta’s The Promise (1995), Park Changwook’s JSA (2000), Jim Tae-kyun’s Crossing (2008), and Christian Petzold’s Barbara (2012). Williams explains how these films focus on both direct and indirect border crosses, and how the border spaces depicted range from highly historicized to fantastic and implausible. In all cases, the trope of the inner-national border serves to underscore the propagandistic nature of the films.