Analysis of religious suffering in existentialism cinema based on Kierkegaard's philosophical theology

Kierkegaard considers suffering to be a deeply internal experience that stems from man's effort to pass through the aesthetic and then the ethical stages and reach faith. This path relies on components such as individualism, passion, and hiddenness. In the possibility that a person is confronted with the absolute, he experiences paradox and existential suffering that results from its silence and incomprehensibility. Faithful suffering is the result of becoming or becoming possible. The present study explains that although cinema is not capable of directly representing the sacred and the ultimate faith, it can approach the perception of the existential dimensions of faithful suffering by depicting these components and the suffering that results from it. Therefore, the present article, with a descriptive-analytical approach and based on library studies, analyzes how faithful suffering is represented from the perspective of Kierkegaard's philosophical theology in existentialist cinema. Finally, the findings of the article show that the perfection of every faith experience lies in silence, and existentialist cinema, by focusing on how these components and the suffering associated with them emerge, although it cannot depict it, can contribute significantly to explaining this profound experience through Socratic irony, myth, and allegory, and the representation of the components.