The problem is my wife – and I’d rather have made a different film

How can sexualised violence be portrayed? The programme brings together experimental approaches to something that cannot be depicted. The Problem Is My Wife tackles domestic violence through documentary-style staged therapy sessions in a minimalist studio setting. The focus is on husbands who beat their wives and seek therapeutic help – played by actors who re-enact sessions with real therapists. Against an anti-illusionist backdrop, the rhetorical strategies and mechanisms of male violence are laid bare. I Would Rather Have Made a Different Film addresses sexualised violence through superimposed image projections, cropped family photographs and an autobiographical voice-over. The starting point is the violence Itzel suffered at the hands of her father as a child. In the struggle with language and images, the representational vacuum surrounding traumatic experiences becomes tangible as a void on and within the image, whilst the reconstruction of one’s own memories serves as a means of self-assertion – to no longer remain silent about what was experienced. (df)