The role of national cinema in cultural identity

The role of national cinema in cultural identity

In recent years, there has been a veritable discursive explosion on the concept of identity in relation to national and personal identity. The concept of national cinema has been used to describe both national and cultural identity as the actors try to bring the sense of a unified community that exists to all members of the state. Considering the war film as a case study, I believe the film is more of a national film that seeks to promote the unity of the nation.

National identity starts when an individual identifies himself with the community or social group. Individual identity is the base for both cultural and national state identity. According to the film Waltz with Bashir, the soldier related their memory of the Lebanon war to identify themselves with the nation (Yosef, 2010). The soldiers were hunted by the ghost, even after the war ended, which they can only recall what happened on the battlefield as they fight for the nation.

An individual identifies himself in the group due to cohesiveness that was built in the developing the group. The culture and norms of the group are the core values that build up a culture in society. According to the film Waltz with Bashir, the solder unity was build following the hard time they passed through during the Lebanon war (Yosef, 2010). As one soldier narrates, “when I am treating there would, at the same point, I have to touch the wound and expose them.” It shows the difficult times that brought soldiers together in support of the national culture.

Individual identification is a projection of the experience and emotional life they have lived in the past. A person is identified based on his personal history and also identifies himself through the memories left of his old day. According to the film Beaufort, the solder retains the traumatic experience and memories of the war that help identifies themselves and the culture despite being silenced and rejected form the national historical narratives (Yosef, 2010). They related the current culture with the war memories and experience they passed through that help identifies themselves. The soldier had to make a critical decision on who they are and what they what in life to define themselves even after being rejected by the national historical narratives.

The feeling of helplessness and isolation from the national state culture leads to personal identities of who they are and what there represent. The traumatic event and emotional experiences event are what soldiers remember, but they could not relate to the catastrophic event that existed. As one of the solder narratives, “I see myself going up to my position, I do not remember everything that happened, but I want to remember” (Yosef, 2010). The situation shows how memories are deeply rooted in our minds that form a personal identity. Most of the soldiers had to ensure their lives are still moving on despite living in the ghost of wars. They have to identify themselves again with the community and the nation they fought to maintain their cultural identity.

Despite the rejection of the collective national memory, it isn’t easy to distinguish the personal identifies from the nation since they are part of the society, and their memory contributes to the development of collective national memory. Personal soldier memories play a crucial role in personal identifications after the war (Yosef, 2010). The personal memories that were full of the traumatic event and emotional experiences did not count in the collective national memory due to the painful scars left to the soldier and nation memory. The national identities try to distinguish itself from the personal identity of the soldier who scarifies themselves to achieve.

The film represents the specific memories of the soldier that present the history and current perspective, the subjective and personal nature of the memories from the past to the future that is the basis to personal identity. Individuals must first identify their past, present, and future to identify themselves. According to Hall (1996), the notion of identification either at an individual or national level, must first take the core values of an individual, unfolding from the beginning to the end. It indicates the role of the soldier’s memory in defining self-identity that must be related from the past to current.

According to Hall (1996), personal identification is the ability of people to recognize some common origin and characteristics with other close people. The process of individual identity is entirely subjective since the group must be bond together by the same behaviors that are subject to changes. The soldiers were bond together due to the traumatic emotion and experiences they passed through during the Lebanon war that helps identify themselves.

The reading and film provide a clear picture of what it takes to have an identity as a person and to the nation. It essential to articulate the importance of identity in the contemporary world that is based on historical experience and emotional. Personal identity should be analyzed based on the past, present, and future to find a suitable position in society easily. The film provides a clear view of how emotional and personal experience in the past can shape individual identity. It is essential to understand the position people tend to occupy and why through self-identity in relation to the group they associate with since the personal identity defines the group identity while the group identity defines the personal identity. Group or national identity is developed by people of the same characters who passed through the same experiences and emotional situation, just like the soldier in the Lebanon war that defines the collective national memory.

Yosef, R. (2010). War fantasies: Memory, trauma, and ethics in Ari Folman’s Waltz with Bashir. Journal of Modern Jewish Studies, 9(3), 311-326.

Hall, S. (1996). Who needs identity? Questions of cultural identity, 16(2), 1-17.