Realistic and symbolic, this series mixes childhood games, survival and death. As the plot progresses, it is inevitable to become attached to certain characters and to intuit who will be eliminated in the next game: the strong and silent leader, the grumpy stranger, the violent gangster, the good-natured old man or the naive gentleman who serves as luck. public spokesperson.
These characters represent different archetypes that express aggression as a human characteristic that supposes the presence of violence in the constitution of society. In history there are opposing social types such as the leader vs. the stranger, the violent vs. the kind, the scapegoat or actor of the conflict –with which we identify ourselves– vs. the “teacher”, the great other who controls behaviors – attachment figure – and on whom at one point in life our survival as the vulnerable species that we are depended.
In the series, that mix of childhood games fueled with heartbreaking cruelty resonates at very early moments in human psychological development. But how is it that images of extreme suffering are made viable for us to endure?
Freud affirms that conflicts of interest between people are solved in principle through violence. In the primitives, muscular strength decided to whom something belonged or to whom the will should be made, but rudeness was replaced by whoever has the best weapons or dexterity to use them. Intelligence plays – literally – a very important role in the process of winning and surviving.
Violence exists in the imaginary of alleviating the discomfort that one has and thus momentarily rid oneself of one’s daily ailments. In general, we are inclined, as Freud affirms in his essay “The malaise in culture”, to observe this violence as something superfluous, although perhaps it is no less inevitable or results in a less fatal fate.
