Physiognomy, identity and otherness.Towards an intercultural gaze at Manta Ray. [DOI:10.37785/nw.v5n1.a8]

Abstract

The purpose of this essay is to analyze three Manta Ray sequences in which there is a filmic treatment of the protagonists' faces that is consistent and that can be related to the concept of physiognomy of Béla Balázs, as well as to the Emmanuel Lévinas notion of ethics of otherness. This theoretical framework will help to recognize the implicit meaning of the film in relation to its context and, above all, the way in which Phuttiphong Aroonpheng interpreted the anthropological problem of the encounter between identity and otherness beyond the film's plot. Description of the formal dialectics, narrative´s synthesis and suggested concepts will allow to understand why the approach to the face constitutes a filmic motif that represents the human physiognomy as the foundation of a possible intercultural gaze.