In her paper “Spectacular provocations: Spectatorship and Responsibility in Radu Jude’s Historical Films”, Diana explores Radu Jude’s Aferim! (2015) and “Îmi este indiferent dacă intrăm în istorie ca barbari” / “I Do Not Care if We go Down in History as Barbarians” (2018), two recent films that articulate histories of violence, such as the issue of Roma slavery and the genocide of Eastern European Jewry during the Second World War, from within a specific socio-historical and cultural context. Both films are representative for the filmmaker’s continued interest in confronting Romanian audience with shameful aspects of their past. Diana will analyse how the two films use generic formats (the Western) and techniques (direct address and re-enactment) not only to entertain but also to invite spectatorial reflection on the effects on the present of a past left unaddressed by years of communist and post-communist mythmaking. She argues that analysing cinematic and narrative spectacle in relation to the spectatorial positions developed by the two films may help uncover new understandings (both notions of solidarity and also responsibility) in relation to forgotten histories and painful memories of authoritarian pasts.
