Waltz With Bashir

Waltz With Bashir
By Alex Easton
Certificate: 18
Director: Ari Folman
Starring: Ron Ben-Yishai, Ronny Dayag, Ari Folman, Dror Harazi
Running Time: 90 minutes
The phrase ‘poetry in motion’ is too often used in today’s society, but it has never been more aptly applied than with Waltz With Bashir. Uncompromising yet endlessly sophisticated and artistic, it paints a truly moving picture of the horrors of war.
The film has already had huge success, after (unjustly in many people’s eyes) it narrowly lost out on the coveted Palme d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival in May as well as looking like a nail-on for Best Animated Feature in next year’s Oscars. Now it’s in our cinemas and it’s easy to see why it received such high praise.
Most striking is the visual style that director Ari Folman has adopted. Technically, it is an autobiographical animated documentary – admittedly, that doesn’t sound like the most exciting genre, but it is much more than that. The animation can best be described as a kind of saturated and vibrant form of pop-art and the fact that Waltz With Bashir is animated in such a way allows the most violent and brutal of scenes to be almost graceful. A standard documentary would never be able to approach the subject matter of this film with as much delicacy and refinement as this film does, thus allowing the viewer to have a much closer connection with it.
The plot is based around Folman’s real-life experience of having only a vague recollection of his involvement in the first Lebanon War and more specifically, the Sabra and Shatila massacre. Realising that his comrades have vivid memories of the massacre, Folman attempts to re-trace his steps and understand the role he played. Through a series of both harrowing and elegant scenes, we follow his journey as he recalls more and more about the atrocities that took place.
The inherent lack of sensational camera shots or even any acting to analyse means that the film’s soundtrack is integral to adding depth and it does this in exceptional fashion. Varying from classical pieces to rock, the score is almost mesmeric. It is seamlessly integrated to create flowing and subtly rhythmical scenes that have a strangely entrancing feel. Unfortunately, the fluid feeling is sometimes abruptly halted when Folman decides to add direct conversations with his interviewees and somehow, the visual style does not work in these scenes which detracts from the overall experience. Nevertheless, the momentum is continued right to the end.
There are vast amounts of war films, but few of them have ever addressed the subject in such a unique and touching way. Ari Folman has done a brilliant job of telling such a murderous tale in such a sensitive way and the score supports the content perfectly. Skilfully made and hugely humbling, Waltz With Bashir is a triumph.