Fantasmas entre nós: assombrações do neoliberalismo na trilogia "Fantasmas" de Christian Petzold

Abstract

In this research, we seek to investigate how Christian Petzold’s “Ghosts” trilogy, comprising the films The State I Am In (2000), Ghosts (2005), and Yella (2007), challenges the idea of conventional haunting and treats phantasmagoria as a political category, viewed through the lens of the politicaleconomic transformations that German society, and the world, have faced from the late 20th century to the present day. Therefore, the research analyzes how the apparitions in the trilogy are articulated, and how the ghosts generated by these economic transformations designate the set of values, behaviors, and principles that sustain and legitimize the logic of neoliberal society. As a methodological approach, we utilize film analysis to investig ate how the ghost apparitions occur throughout the German director's three feature films. Distancing itself from a purely formal description, t he study adopts a relational perspective that articulates mise-en-scène, spaces, and the characters' forms of subjectivation. Through the analysis of film frames, the work also investigates how the director's aesthetic elements place the dynamics of neoliberalism and social hauntings under tension. To achieve this, the text establishes a dialogue primarily with Mark Fisher’s (2025) concept of Capitalist Realism, Dardot and Laval’s (2016) Neo-liberal subjectivation, Andreas Huyssen’s (2004) reflections on memory, forgetting, and urban space, and, finally, Jaimey Fisher’s (2013) formal studies regarding director Christian Petzold.