Daniel Cherrin reviews Ari Folman’s film Waltz with Bashir.

Waltz with Bashir, an animated film directed by Ari Folman, is an international co-production between Israel, Germany and France. The film explores the 1982 War between Israel and Lebanon, focusing specifically on the 1982 massacre at the Sabra and Shatila refugee camps. It is unusually solemn, even wrenching subject matter for an animated film, mixing various film genres to create a compelling cinematic experience.

The Sabra and Shatila massacre was carried out between the 15^th and 16^th of September 1982 by the Lebanese Phalanges militia group. It is alleged that the Israeli military allowed Lebanese Phalangist militiamen to enter two Palestinian refugee camps and massacre civilians inside. The number of victims is disputed, estimates as high as 3,000- 3,500 bodies are recorded. Whether the IDF knew (or should have known) that a massacre would occur is disputed, but the Kahan Commission, set up in the aftermath of the war by the Israeli government to investigate the atrocity, found Israeli forces indirectly responsible.

From the very first scene of the movie, the viewer becomes deeply engaged in the narrative. The scene shows a pack of growling wild dogs racing through the streets of Tel Aviv in a dark night. Anyone who has ever visited the coastal city will immediately recognize its streets and building style in the expressive artistic rendering.

In 1982, Director Ari Folman was a 20 year old infantry soldier in the Israel Defense Forces. After talking with a friend about his nightmares from the war, Folman is surprised to admit that he does not remember a thing from the period. His only memory of the entire war is visions of himself and his fellow soldiers bathing in the Beirut sea, the night illuminated by flares over the unfolding massacre at Sabra and Shatilla.

In order to regain the distinctly unpleasant memories he has suppressed, Folman sets out on a journey to visit other soldiers with whom he had fought and who also had experienced the horrors of the Lebanon war firsthand. The film follows Folman as he interviews former friends from the war and from childhood. One is Ori Sivan, Folman’s best friend from childhood, he is a personal shrink for Ari, always available to discuss anything. The two studied together at Tel Aviv university, and have collaborated with each other on a number of projects. Another character, Ron Ben–Yishai is a highly respected reporter and war correspondent. Ben-Yishai, was in Beirut covering the war in 1982, and Ari remembers well his fearless and respected nature. Journalism plays an important role in the film, for it is yet another genre that make up for the cinematic experience.

During these interviews we are presented with different kinds of stories from the experiences of the characters. Sometimes we find ourselves watching the animated version of a dream. Other times it’s flashbacks of the war, and the real situations that the soldiers had experienced on the ground. We understand the stories of the interviewees to be the historical recount of the situation.

The film portrays the fear and hasty negligence of young Israeli soldiers who are suddenly thrown into battle. Soldiers are shown riding through orchards in tanks, firing at everything and nothing, rolling through city streets, destroying cars and storefronts almost as if for fun, but the viewer recognizes Folman’s anxiety in the movements of the nervous soldiers.

The film’s animation holds a very contemporary expression in itself. The renderings of the people and faces are those of comics, the mouths moving at a different pace than the words. Israeli stereotypes are highlighted through mannerisms and language. The renderings themselves are very much based in artistic expressionism rather than realism. Activities occur on many different planes within the frame, with events taking place in the background while conversations are carried on in the foreground.

Animation is used to connect real time, flashbacks, dream sequences and fantasy on the same viewing platform, as if all existed on the same plane. The viewer does not question this, even when complex ideas are made simple and provocative, and the horrors of war are made all too accessible to the audience.

Waltz with Bashir is rare in filmmaking, as it combines many styles and genres on the same cinematic plane. The movie originated as real video; most of it was shot in a sound studio. From this material a storyboard with some 2300 illustrations was drawn that later was converted into animation. But this is no ordinary animation. The sequences and fantasy convey the narrative aspect of storytelling. During the interview sequences, the names of the interviewees are labeled in the corner of the frame, so we sense that we are watching a documentary. We also see many different frames through the lens of war journalism, and a number of times the film breaks into a musical number. The viewer is inundated with different ideas and painful realities, all portrayed in a montage of black humor.

Suddenly at the end of the movie he remembers. He recalls the night of the massacre, he was on the rooftops lighting the sky with flares. We understand that his presence in the repeated scene of them coming out from the ocean, resides in the flares themselves. He was never in the ocean, it was all a fantasy. The whole journey through his consciousness leads up to the last sequence.

This review would not be complete without addressing the end of the film, but as a reviewer, I would be loathe to tell anyone who has not seen the film how this amazing work ends. In fact, it is not the story per se, but rather the cinematic device that makes the ending so powerful. As Folman reclaims his own memories, the audience understands that the animated film is a metaphor for us not seeing clearly, for us not remembering the horrors of war. The camera lens only captures a specific point of view from a time lost. The camera lens and what we are forced to see dramatize “reality”. The message is all the more timely considering the fact that it was released 2 years after the Second Lebanon War, whose scars may only become clear in another twenty years.

With the onset of the latest regional war with Gaza, Folman accepted the Golden Globe. He dedicated the film to the babies born to his team members over the course of the four year production. He said that he hoped one day these babies will regard the film and the war it describes as an old video game with which they had nothing to do.

Waltz with Bashir is a film that is seemingly hard to classify, however managing to gain much attention. In addition to recently receiving the Golden Globe for best foreign film, the film is winner of six Ophir Israeli Academy awards for best movie, director, screenplay, artistic design, editing, and sound design. The film was nominated for an academy award in three categories: best documentary feature, best animated feature, and best foreign language film. Disappointing many high hopes however, the film did not claim a statue. The film continues to play around the world and is still a highly regarded piece of cinema. It will be very interesting to see what further unfolds for this film.