Inspiring from "Frantz" for Peace: The Politics of Encounter and Forgiveness

This paper reviews and analyzes the film “Frantz”, a French film created and directed by François Ozon in 2016 by relating the content of the film with the themes of forgiveness and the politics of encounter. Such two themes are also related to the understandings of positive peace as developed by Johan Galtung as well as important for feminist politics. The film narrates the story of Anna, a German woman whose fiancé is killed by Adrien, a French man during World War I. The film focuses on micro-processes of forgiveness and its potential contribution to nurturing of culture of peace by touching the importance of the politics of encounter. As the film continues, Anna reconstructs herself as a more liberated woman. Although the film relies on Christianity for the idea of forgiveness, the theme of forgiveness is very important to be discussed as a critical element of ensuring peace and peaceful relations in a collective manner/sense. Forgiveness may be basically defined as “a deliberate process that transforms a vengeful, negative response into a positive one” (Maio et al, 2008: 307). Forgiveness does not only reflect that "the other" and "enemies" are artificial constructs but also open a space for questioning the structural issues behind violence. Such questioning is important for the reconstruction of values necessary for peace for all. Analyzing the film opens a space for further discussion about how forgiveness may be important as a tool for peace. To this end, this paper mainly aims to question and seek answers for the roles and meanings of forgiveness for feminist politics and peace studies.