The ever-present second Sudanese Civil War on the movie His House (2020)

Abstract

The Netflix horror movie His House (2020) was directed by Remi Weekes, produced by Aidan Elliott, and based directly on Felicity Evans as well as Toby Venables’ homonymous screenplay. It displayed a South Sudanese couple, Bol and Rial, who fled their country’s second civil war to England in pursuit of a new British life. For seriatim, the American Psychiatric Association (APA) have highlighted that post-traumatic stress disorder signs (PTSD) individuals could reveal 4 key symptomatic clusters: 1) Intrusions, 2) Avoidances, 3) Negations and 4) Hyper-arousal. The director, Weekes (2020), could apply a plethora of cinematographic techniques (BUCKLAND, 2015, DITTUS, 2013; GIANNETTI, 2001) to represent his protagonists’ various PTSD signs. Among the many cinematographic techniques applied, Weekes (2020) explored masterfully the mise-en-shot, the lighting and the set design. The spectators were able to identify the clear PTSD cinematic representations such as Bol’s recurrent dreaming intrusions to his psyche as well as Rial’s subsequent avoidances toward her daughter. Moreover, Weekes (2020) unveil his main characters’ flawed characterization through their own negations of their surroundings and high expectations of their new British lives. Through the meticulously chosen cinematographic techniques, the downtrodden couple Bol and Rial’s narrative journey got even stonier, by far more complex and intensely less melodramatic.

Keywords

• o que ficou para trás (2020)
• a segunda guerra civil sudanesa
• narrativa cinematográfica.