Includes bibliographical references (p. 185-195) and index.

Includes filmography.

Introduction -- Specters of war. Ruptures of history : trauma, memory and the archive in Beaufort -- Spectacles of pain : war, trauma and male masochism in Kippur -- Trauma and ethnicity. Restaging the primal scene : melancholia and ethnicity in Cinema Egypt and Desperado Square -- Recycled wounds : trauma, gender and ethnicity in Or, my treasure -- Sexuality and loss. The national closet : trauma, loss and sex in Yossi and Jagger -- Phantasmatic losses : national traumas, masculinity and the primal fantasy in Walk on water -- Trauma and ethics. The identity of the victim : trauma and responsibility in Beaufort, Lebanon, Waltz with Bashir and Forgiveness.