Photography is memory, is a specific historical moment, preserving life in an amber and waiting Jonathan to uncover the history happened in Ukraine through the uses of flash back in the film. “Only photographic lens can give us the kind of image of the object that is capable of satisfying the deep need man has to substitute for it something more than a mere approximation, a kind of decal or transfer” (198). Photography functioned as a record tool, gives us its objectivity of reality which deeper go into the need of understanding the truth. When the old photograph was taken out of the sealed plastic bag with an amber in it, Schreiber use close-up shots on Jonathan’s, Alex’s grandfather’s and Lista’s face focusing on their …show more content…
Bazin notes, “No one believes any longer in the ontological identity of model and image, but all are agreed that the image helps us to remember the subject and to preserve him from a second spiritual death” (196). Using an example of sunflower to interpret Bazin’s idea, A long shot tracking with Alex’s pace showing the surrounding landscape of sunflower. The memory of the past can really be engraved in the present scenery. The brilliant sunflowers, and the ruined walls that had been torn by war. In flashback, the same land is full of smoke and blood. Those two different scene records the change of a town. The value of an image is treasured by people and waiting for someone like Jonathan to discover. A bird eye shot of Alex's grandfather laying in the red bath tub peacefully describes his suicide. For him, the pain of those years would come in an instant through the searching of the photography. When he saw the pictures of Augustina, he recalls the memory that do not want to be mentioned anymore and help him realize his identity as a Jewish. “The ontology of photography preserves him from a second spiritual death” reveals on the way he chooses death for end the memory and