Thinking about Patricia's observation about Benny's Video in connection with this strand, both the girl in Benny's Video and Majid in Hidden stand for the Other, that which is erased, whether by the murderer or by the domainant culture, in Hidden's case mainstream France. The agricultural methods of erasure, stun gun, sharp knife, suggests the dehumanization of the Other. Concerned across a range of films with the attrition of European social relations and cultures, Haneke chooses weapons that turn the victim into a thing.

 

I take the point that the knife does not have to be a culturally specific way of death. Aside from the peculiarly awful suddenness of  Majid death, as Patricia has stressed, the film makes you wish you could have got to know Majid better. Still, I suppose by exposing the vacuity of the Laurents, Haneke has made his point.

Richard