Understanding Liminality and Intangible Difficult Heritage through Film

Abstract

The tourist's role in engaging with difficult heritage is described as a liminal one, in a state of ”limbo” outside of their ordinary lives, embracing the challenging historical narratives presented by difficult heritage while also maintaining a certain detachment. This liminality parallels the cinematic experience, where the audience temporarily resides in a similar state of in-betweenness, delving into imagined traumatic pasts from the safety of the present. This paper contributes both to literature on difficult heritage and to intangible cultural heritage to reveal the need for a more nuanced appreciation of intangible difficulty heritage when concerning genocide and war. It presents the 'Dealing with Trauma through Film' project, with a particular emphasis on its materiality within the context of the German-Namibian conflict and genocide, regarded as difficult heritage. Nelson's concept of liminality plays a pivotal role in understanding the dynamic between the film audience and the experience of the actors involved. The primary focus here is on the production of the German movie 'Der Vermessene Mensch' (The Measures of Men and outlines the intricate representation of intangible aspects of difficult heritage related to conflict through the medium of film.