Fantasy, Desire and War in “Ring of Fire (Zennar El-Nar)” Film

매체로서의 영화는 개인의 삶뿐만 아니라 해당 개인이 속한 사회의 실상을 투영해 보여주는 도구의 역할을 한다. 이러한 전제는 아랍 영화, 특히 본 연구가 소재로 삼고 있는 레바논 영화 ‘불의 고리(Zennar El-Nar)’에도 적용된다. 해당 영화는 레바논 내전을 배경으로 하고 있는데, 레바논 내전은 중요한 영화적 모티프이자 영화적 영감을 주는 소재로 사용되어 왔다(Shafik 2007, 229). 영화 ‘불의 고리(Zennar El-Nar)’에서는 Chafic이라는 주인공이 처한 레바논 내전이라는 현실이 어떻게 주인공 자신의 환상(fantasy)과 욕망(desire)을 통해 구현되고 왜곡되는지를 그리고 있다. 즉, 주인공의 의식세계와 무의식의 세계가 교차하고 상상과 현실이 얽힘으로써 이 두 요소가 서로 구별되는 것이 아닌 뫼비우스의 띠처럼 하나로 연결되어 있음을 보여준다. 본 연구에서는 주인공의 개인적인 상상과 욕망이 어떠한 방식으로 사회 공동체가 처한 현실과 연관되어 있는지, 더 나아가 이러한 개인의 심리와 의식이 어떻게 사회 공동체의 정체성 혼란의 문제로 발전되어 가는지를 ‘심리·정신분석학적 접근법’에 의해 분석한다. 또한, 은유와 비유를 통해 구현된 다양한 영화적 이미지 및 상징들을 ‘기호학적 접근법’을 통해 분석함으로써 결국 환상과 욕망을 통해 표출되는 한 개인의 혼돈스러운 삶이 전쟁과 폭력으로 대변되는 참혹한 현실과 궤를 같이하고 있음을 밝힌다.

The film, “Ring of Fire (Zennar El-Nar)” by Lebanese filmmaker Bahij Hojeij, portrays the unavoidable afflictions of war on the human psyche. Such conditions are manifested, often metaphorically, through the film’s ordinary characters and the depiction of absurdities in a society consumed by violence. The protagonist, a university professor called Chafic, struggles to evade the chaos of the Lebanese Civil War as he attempts to reunite with a woman with whom he held a brief, yet unforgettable, flirtation under the cover of darkness while waiting for the most recent bombings to subside. Notably, he has violent dreams as well as visions of experiences at checkpoints and bloody encounters, which are either imaginary or real. The director moves the film in and out of Chafic’s realms of consciousness and unconsciousness, creating ambiguity as to whether the audience is viewing his dream, fantasy or reality. The director appears to suggest that there is no separation between fantasy and reality; rather, they are intertwined like two sides of a Mobius strip, and hence it would be meaningless to separate them. In the film, sexual desire and fantasy are closely related, and sexual desire is articulated through fantasy. With sexual desire and fantasy heightened by the events of the Lebanese Civil War, the war is seen to precipitate sexual fantasy throughout the film. Taking into consideration these implicit and explicit cinematic effects, this study examines how psychological and mental dimensions, such as fantasy and desire, are embodied in the film, and analyzes to what extent these dimensions are influenced by events of reality, namely the Lebanese Civil War. In addition, this study explores how reality is metaphorically described in the film, and how the gloomy reality portrayed in the film can be compared with that in Albert Camus’ novel, “The Plague.” Specifically, this study delves into how the film depicts war and violence relative to the concept of “ownership,” and what questions can be asked in relation to the issue of “identity.” To summarize, this study focuses on investigating how personal issues presented as fantasy and desire are allegorical to social issues, such as the Lebanese Civil War and the Lebanese collective identity. In order to achieve the study’s objectives, a semiotic approach is used as a research method based on Barthes’ semiotic theory (Garibotto 2017, 655; Jehamat, Ngalu, & Putra 2020, 67-68; Zaimar 2017, 221-223). The method analyzes the signs, codes and symbols that appear explicitly or are depicted implicitly in the film, and unravel the significance behind them. This study identifies the metaphors, analogies and images used to construct the film’s characters, and examines how they are employed to present the external world or reality which the characters are facing. In so doing, a basis is formed to understand the relationship between the characters and the overall context of the film, and to help decipher the actual meanings of the messages which the film intends to deliver.