Waltz with Bashir | Review

There are ample enough reasons why a person might choose to block an item out from their memory, and if you are director/former soldier Ari Folman, there are a collection of events and experiences you’d want to completely blank out from the personal timeline. In integrating animation techniques into the biographical doc format, not only does the Israeli-born filmmaker replace stock footage that simply ceases to exist, but he takes both the heroics and the horrendousness of war, and delivers a cutting edge, brutally honest portrait without the need for political correctness or apathy. Like cinematic rocket fuel, Waltz with Bashir would ordinarily have been an ineffective, talking heads documentary. Instead, with no rotoscope-like headaches and a vibrant color palette, the ingenious mesh of docu form and animation makes this one of the revelation films from this year’s Cannes film festival.

Setting the tone of the docu, Folman begins with a pulsating opening nightmare sequence where an ordinary-looking man gets chased by a pack of foaming at the mouths, sharp-toothed wild dogs – post war trauma definitely has a funny way of sticking with a person. This is one of the vivid pieces of the puzzle that Folman extracts from in-person interviews among former buddies from the barracks. The enigma commenced back in 1982, when Israeli’s invasion of Lebanon and occupation of Beirut in an attempt to drive out opposing Palestinian in-fighting was resulted in: the assassination of new president Bashir Gemayel and a bloodbath aftermath with the savage massacre of innocent people at the Sabra and Shatila refugee camps. From escaping the inescapable on the beach front to a crazed scene from where the film gets is title, the vigor of Folman’s visual aesthetics consequently adds further dramatic value to the individual survival stories and blood soaked tales.

Flashbacks and playbacks come equipped with a punk soundtrack that alter this from being an 11 o’clock news type of doldrums, and the one can tell that Folman has made a very personal film by the very fact that he includes his own psychiatrist among the docu narrative. The technology puts a totally different spin on anecdotal storytelling, and though it applies a toon territory look, it doesn’t diminish the film’s illumination on post traumatic stress disorder and the costs of using young soldiers fighting in exhaustible territorial conflicts. Such as the recent example of Persepolis, animation geared towards adults and that carry heavier themes, will undoubtedly become a new narrative trend when discussing hot topic matters. A history lesson delivered in less palpable morsels, Waltz with Bashir doesn’t position itself as a fervent anti-war film and take no sides on Middle East politics, instead Folman eloquently dissolves the red splatter and animated mortar shellings for a sobering finale of news reel images that remind viewers not to make associations with any Pixar stuff.

Reviewed at the 2008 Cannes Film Festival (Section: Main Competition)

May 14th 2008.

87 Minutes

Rating 4 stars