Relationships between victims and perpetrators
- Christopher Krenik
- Jan 27, 2017
- 3 min read
Films, books, and plays about conflict and post-conflict are nothing new - in fact they are one of the oldest genres of media known, going back as far as Sophocles in Ancient Greece with his play Antigone. One of the main elements of such media is the relationship that forms between the victims of the conflict and the perpetrators, especially in events of post-conflict when the victims can finally obtain justice for what was done to them. Such relationships, in regards to post-conflict, often become cyclical, with the victims and perpetrators switching places over the course of time. In countries which were led by an oppressive regime that recently fell, such media can be even more poignant. One example is the Argentinian film El secreto de sus ojos, or The Secret in Their Eyes in English. The film is about a federal agent, Espósito, who hunts down a man accused of raping and murdering a married woman. The victim in this film is the husband, Ricardo Morales, and the perpetrator is the murderer, Isidoro Gómez. Their interactions are mostly off-screen, but since the beginning, Ricardo does not want Isidoro to die; he wants him to experience life imprisonment. The reasoning for this is that death would end his suffering - he wants Isidoro to suffer every day for the rest of his life the way Ricardo is suffering. When Isidoro is captured, this desire is fulfilled, until Romano, a rival of Espósito, spites the agent by using Isidoro to hunt guerrillas and enemies of the state. Shortly after this, Ricardo kidnaps Isidoro and moves to the country, where he has Isidoro in isolation, punishing him for life. Thus, he has become the perpetrator and Isidoro has become the victim, although this depends on an individual's definition of "justice." In the scene below, Ricardo is waiting at a train station, hoping that Isidoro will be there so he can confront him, whereas the tags show how his relationship with Isidoro develops over time.
It is not just film that shows how the relationships between victims and perpetrators are cyclical - plays do so as well, particularly the play Death and the Maiden. In this play, a woman ties up and threatens a doctor who she believes is the one who tortured and raped her. She wants justice for what was done to her, and wants him to confess to what he did. However, he refuses and says that she is mentally ill, which is not wrong. Thus, her husband helps him write a fake confession with details his wife gives him, but she reveals she lied about small details that the doctor corrected in his confession. What this play and the actions of the two people reveal is that the relationship between victims and perpetrators is cyclical, just as this infograph shows.
In many cases of media and real-life, the relationship between victims and perpetrators is cyclical. The movie Wild Tales shows this in its segment "El más fuerte," where two drivers continuously antagonize each other until they both die in flames. This is a clear example of how justice and vengeance can escalate until they take both parties down. Of course, an important part of the victim-perpetrator relationship is justice for the crime. In El secreto de sus ojos, Ricardo holds his vengeance in check, knowing that life imprisonment is far more just than killing Isidoro. The ending of Death and the Maiden is not as clear, being ambiguous as to Roberto's fate. Still, both show the victim getting either justice or vengeance on their perpetrator, becoming perpetrators themselves. Perhaps the largest difference between is whether or not their actions are justified, which is a whole other discussion.
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