ABSTRACT
Using Judy Kibinge’s feature film Something Necessary, this chapter explores how national crises is depicted through cinema and examines questions that arise from cinematic text. Something Necessary replays aspects of post-election violence that took place in 2007/2008 in Kenya. The film juxtaposes the perpetrator and the victim and takes the audience on a journey with them as they look for something necessary and asks pertinent questions like: who caused the violence? Why did they do it? What does it feel like to be a perpetrator? How does the perpetrator reflect aspects of victimhood? While the film may not answer all these questions regarding post-election violence, its interrogation enables productive contemplation on historical injustices that nobody really wants to deal with. Thus, the chapter explores how the paradoxical subject-position of victim and perpetrator facilitates confrontation of national pain and articulation of a national crisis. Particularly, the chapter examines how narrative strategies adopted in Something Necessary bring out the social, cultural, and political function of the film. The author argues that such filmic narratives demand the audience’s willingness not only to work through the pain of communal loss but also offer an opportunity to question ideological mainstream modes of individual, collective, and national identity in relation to national loss and pain. Grounded on grid-group theory by Mary Douglas and various approaches to pain and trauma, this chapter sheds light on the perpetrator-victim relationship and how the film’s narrative changes our sensibilities when we view the perpetrator as a victim as well.
