Waltz with Bashir

I first caught wind of Waltz with Bashir at the Golden Globes, seeing a clip of it among the nominees for Best Foreign Film. The fact that an animated film wasn’t hidden away in the animated film category (no offense) piqued my interest. The unique style of the animation also aroused my curiosity. Imagine my subsequent shock that an animated film won the category! Though I was determined to see it, the film didn’t show in any of our local theaters. So the title languished in our Netflix cue for quite a while until its recent release on DVD and blu-ray.

A filmmaker attempts to sort out his surreal vision of a war he forgot.

The film is Hebrew language with subtitles, and follows the quest of the film’s writer-director-producer, Ari Folman, to uncover the truth about his experiences during the 1982 Lebanese War. In 2006 he meets an old service comrade for drinks, whereupon the friend describes dreams in which the dogs he was forced to shoot during the war gather outside his window and bark at him. This causes Ari to realize that he has absolutely no memories of the war. That night, he experiences a vision of himself and two friends floating in the waters offshore of Beirut while flares descend from the night skies during the Sabra and Shatila massacre. The dreamlike, surreal quality of the vision leaves Ari unsettled. He begins to track down former fellow soldiers, including the ones he saw in the dream. Little by little he begins to realize the truth behind the vision, and about Israel’s role in the massacre.

The film takes place in a series of interviews that recall the war.

The narrative drives forward through a series of real-life interviews and scripted composites read by actors, depicting Ari’s friends from the war. Events they describe are shown in flashbacks. The music score features atmospheric electronic pieces as well as 80′s new wave, punk rock, and some political rock songs that seem to be written specifically for the film, with lyrics translated in the subtitles.

Animated over the course of four years, Waltz with Bashir is surreal and amazing.

Like The Reader, Waltz with Bashir leaves the viewer with the haunting idea that regular people do terrible things in war. Though what’s done is done and can never be undone, the film makes clear the importance of remembering what happened and admitting it was a horrible mistake. I wasn’t surprised to discover the film is banned in Lebanon, but I would strongly encourage their government and people to watch it, to let themselves feel the mix of emotions in this film, and to heal.

Tags: animation, Foreign, review