Waltz with Bashir

Written and directed by Ari Folman. Released by Sony Pictures Classics.

Curiously, Waltz with Bashir is not the first animated documentary I’ve seen in the last year. Back in the spring, I saw Brett Morgen’s Chicago 10, which combined archival footage with animated reenactments of the 1968 Chicago riots and the ensuing trial. Before that, Marjane Satrapi and Vincent Paronnaud’s Persepolis, while perhaps not technically a documentary, used animation to recall Satrapi’s childhood in Iran.

Notably, all three films could be considered protest films against their respective societies, using animation not just for practical reasons (i.e., the relevant documentary footage doesn’t exist), but also as a stylistic resource to express emotional states that live action could only be made to suggest. Yet Waltz with Bashir feels like its on a different plane than either of those two earlier films, not just a critique of Israeli military forces during the 1982 Lebanon War but a howl of anger directed at Israeli military policy as it exists today.

The film is director Ari Folman’s exploration of his memories from his time as a soldier during the 1982 Lebanon War. After hearing of a friend’s recurring dream relating to the war, Folman realizes that he has supressed his own memories of the conflict. He sets out to interview fellow soldiers and other participants, including journalist Ron Ben-Yishai, in order to unlock those memories and better understand his own possible role in the Sabra and Shatila massacre, during which untold numbers of Palestinians were murdered by Lebanese Phalangists with implicit Israeli approval.

The film has a few startling images, starting with a dream sequence that opens the film, in which a pack of 26 snarling dogs run through the city streets. Later, we see a soldier hallucinating as a giant naked woman swims out to his boat to save him; he floats away while holding on to her like a life raft. But the most startling facet of the film is its unflinching portrayal of the Israeli military’s conduct during the war. Soldiers – including Folman – seem to be in a more or less constant state of disarray. Scene after scene, we see them indiscrimately firing their weapons, recklessly destroying property, missing targets, or panicking under fire.

It’s clear that Folman doesn’t feel much nobility from his service during the war, and his ignobility is brought to bear on the Army as a whole. In fact, the film seems to question the very concept of nobility during war (it’s not as though the Palestinian army, though rarely directly shown, is portrayed any better), and its difficult not to see the parallels as the Israeli military continues to stumble around the region during the present day.

As Folman draws nearer to the crux of the film – the Sabra and Shatila massacres – the psychological weight becomes difficult to bear [Note: Potential spoiler ahead]. One of my minor criticisms of Cristian Mungiu’s 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days was the long shot of the fetus, and how a film can only be so traumatic without triggering defensive reaction in the viewer (or, at least, in me). Waltz with Bashir, however, pulls off nearly the opposite trick; after the horrors of the massacre build, the film switches to live-action news footage. It’s a devastating move, leaving the viewer with nowhere to escape, no way to avoid the horror before them.