Women Filming Shell Shock

This article examines two documentary films by women filmmakers dealing with combat stress: Irit Gal's Harmed Forces (1999) and Nurit Kedar's On the Edge (2003). The first Israeli female directors to deal with combat stress reactions, their work is distinguished from that of male directors in its criticism of the establishment and society and a camera perspective that identifies and empathizes with combat stress victims, including a cinematic strategy for representing the trauma of war. The article offers close readings of the films’ narratives that reveal their radical criticism of hegemonic attitudes and examines their different ethical concepts, forms of trauma discourse, and modes of identification with combat-stressed soldiers. Reading these films from the historical perspective of women's documentary cinema reveals two different approaches to creating counter cinema.