In cinemas Thursday Sep 11 [MA]

Director: Ari Folman

Runtime: 87mins

The horrors of war and the atrocities of which humans are capable of have been documented many times before, but never like this. Waltz With Bashir explores the traumatic journey of the filmmaker himself, Ari Folman, and his own past as a young soldier. The film is his way of coming to terms with the gaps in his memory surrounding the part he played in the 1982 Lebanese war, and the massacre of Palestinian civilians in the Beirut refugee camps of Sabra and Shatila. 

The film uses vivid, hand-drawn animation brought to life by David Polonsky and his team of animators. Replacing actual footage with animated images gives the film a uniqueness that might have been lost otherwise. Folman documents nine stories – seven of them from real people based on actual interviews recorded in a sound studio. As he begins to talk to his old comrades about their experiences and memories from the war, his memory starts to kick in. The film takes the audience right back to the battlefield and the horrific scenes of war are shown in detail. The protagonists talk about their total inexperience, naivety and fear during the conflict.

As things progress and become more and more grim, the reality of war becomes clear. The young heroic warriors are stripped away and left with feelings of guilt and shock that haunt their minds. Although the Israeli soldiers did not encourage the massacre, they did nothing to stop it from happening. In the end the animation is gone and the real image is revealed; we see dead bodies piled up, waist high, women, children and old people all murdered. This is an outstanding cinematic technique, powerfully displaying the moral vacuity and destructiveness of war.

Folman’s autobiographical animated documentary is exceptional, however I did find it confronting at times. The film is definitely bleak and harrowing, but the surreal animation and lingering impact make Waltz With Bashir a film that should not be missed.

****                                                                           

GEMMA MUMFORD

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