January 18, 2009: Waltz With Bashir
Waltz with Bashir is an animated film presented in Hebrew and other languages, the true story of a young Israeli soldier’s (Ari Folman) experience in the 1982 Lebanon war, a war about which I must admit I know very little. Wartime “footage” from that period is intercut with modern-day interviews between Folman and his fellow soldiers from the battlefield, as well as a psychologist and a reporter, as he tries to pick apart, nearly 25 years later, the reason for nightmares which have recently been triggered by a discussion with one of his former comrades who has been going through the same experience.
Effectively, this is an animated documentary, since some of the interview footage is real and the journey taken by Folman to find the root of his nightmares is depicted more or less as it happened. Conveniently, the wartime scenes can be depicted as “real” because there isn’t a need to stage them with actors and sets. However, I was struck by how these scenes can only represent the visions and memories of the soldiers, and that is part of the point, since that’s all a re-enactment can ever be. I think that point is often lost in the apparent realism of such scenes in documentaries. Here, the dreamy, sparse graphic novel style of animation emphasizes that these are faded memories.
It’s a bit jarring to see name and occupation details listed beside people being interviewed, as they sit in their offices or studies or wherever, because these are animated characters being depicted as being real. Nevertheless, the voices are real, and the expressive faces are striking. Apparently a couple of the interviewees did not want to appear recognizably in the film, so their faces have been changed, which is another convenient advantage of the animated approach.
The film was critically lauded but of course got the kind of North American box office numbers one would expect from an animated foreign-language feature. As with many films which cover events with which I’m not very familiar, it has inspired me to read more about this Lebanon-Israel conflict. The animation style and the overall approach to the filmmaking are refreshing. Waltz With Bashir was nominated for an Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film, but lost out to Okuribito. Still, it’s well worth viewing for the adventurous film buff.
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