Film Review: Waltz with Bashir

Ari Folman is an Israeli film director and score composer born to Holocaust survivors in 1962. His most renowned previous work is film Saint Clara which won multiple awards in Israel including Ophir award for best film, best directing and best supporting act. Waltz with Bashir is most highly distinguished by its distinct visual style using a unique form of animation which was developed by Yoni Goodman and compiling it with very cinematic directing and musical scores. The result of this is a very theatrical visual spectacle. Also, despite the film being completely animated it still contains dark hues and unsubtle eerie visual themes to match the dark overall feel of the film and storyline. The film is set in modern day Israel but with constant referral to 1980's Israel during the Lebanon war. For these reasons the film is currently banned in Lebanon. Ari Folman himself stars in the film playing himself in the present day and when he was a young soldier. By casting himself as the protagonist of a film about his own experiences creates a very natural and unbiased viewpoint for the viewer assisting in the fluidity of the film.

Along with constant reference to the Lebanese war, the film circulates around Folman, upon the advise of a childhood friend, interviewing old comrades and fellow soldiers from the war inorder to retrieve lost memories from the Sabra and Shatila massacre in Beirut. The film uses flashbacks of Folman and the interviewees to depict the nitty gritty realities of the war first hand while also intertwining the personal experiences of the interviewee.

I feel the film was an attempt to bring light of the horrific events of the war to the rest of the world, using one of the most horrific aspects of it (the Sabra and Shatila massacre) as the main focus of the storyline. I feel using animation to do this was very effective as the themes and images conveyed in the film are not ones we usually associate with animation, which we find intriguing. In many senses it achieved what it set out to do as it has won and been nominated for multiple international awards such as Golden globe award for Best foreign language film, Academy award for best foreign language film and BAFTA for best film not in the English language. I would personally recommend this film, despite the language barrier, as it is a good watch and is historically informative.