The Framing of Evil in Oppressive Systems : Barbara, Phoenix, and Transit by Christian Petzold

Sammanfattning: The present study aims to create a deeper understanding of the cinematic representation of “evil”. Therefore, a special focus lies on contemporary historical fiction films whose stories are set in totalitarian systems with direct or indirect references to German history. This is interesting as the depiction in films influences the viewer's perspective and understanding of history. While many film narratives have very stereotypical imaginations of good and evil, there are also films that use a more observational perspective on the social dynamics that align with specific situations rather than address villains. As one of the main representatives of the Berlin School, Christian Petzold adopts such an observational perspective in his thematic trilogy “Love in the Times of Oppressive Systems”(Barbara, Phoenix, and Transit). In the three independent stories, he deals with the relationship between the male and female protagonists in different stages of oppression in German society, whereby the power structures in the oppressive systems influence human interactions and social situations of everyday life. Using these films as examples, I will look at the framing of evil in totalitarian systems. For this purpose, I will examine the characters and their constellations and individual and general threats, and their motivations for actions as they are played out in these film narratives by Petzold on a cinematographic and thematic level. By referring to Hannah Arendt's conceptualization of evil, the thesis accounts for the representation of “evil” as a multidimensional phenomenon, and how it resonates in the cinematography and historical imagination of Petzold’s films.