A lélek képei. Pszichodramatikus megoldások a kortárs dokumentumfilmben
Images of the Soul: Psychodramatic Techniques in Contemporary Documentary Filmmaking

Summary/Abstract: In this study, I explore how the ethos and distinctive methodology of psychodrama as a group therapy technique can serve as a source of inspiration for documentary filmmakers seeking innovative ways to depict the invisible, subjective dimensions of reality. I illuminate this central theme through the analysis of three films that employ psychodramatic techniques and have been featured at major international film festivals. The creators of these films engage with their most pressing concerns by evoking the past, present, or imaginative worlds of their protagonists. In Ghost Hunting (2017), which won the Best Documentary Award at the Berlin International Film Festival, director Raed Andoni – himself a former detainee – assembles a group of Palestinian men previously imprisoned in Israeli jails. Through the re-enactment of their shared experiences, the participants confront the traumas they endured. Joshua Oppenheimer’s highly acclaimed The Act of Killing investigates the complex relationship between human psychology and violence through the testimonies of perpetrators still alive today, reflecting on their role in the mass killings of 1960s Indonesia. Finally, Kirsten Johnson’s Emmy Award-winning Dick Johnson Is Dead is a film imbued with a unique blend of humor and playfulness, in which the filmmaker prepares for the inevitable loss of her aging father by staging fictionalized versions of his death.

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