Waltz With Bashir

Waltz With Bashir (opening January 23 at the Angelika) is such a combination of agitprop, documentary and animation that I didn’t even know where to start with my admiration. Yes this cartoon (rotoscoping and animation) docudrama that tells the tragedy of the massacre in the Sabra and Shatila camps during the 1982 Lebanon War is the first feature length animated film from Israel.
The story’s told from the point of view of director Ari Folman, who was a teen soldier in the Israeli army at the time. Waltz With Bashir recreates Folman’s memories through present day conversations with other soldiers who were also there and surreal scenes that illustrate their memories. The movie starts with angry dobermans following Ari through a fever dream. Interestingly a pack of dogs also highlights the omnibus French cartoon Fear(s) of the Dark, but the meaning in Waltz aligns correctly with its dogs of war spine.
Ari's flashbacks of the war unwind like surreal recollections shaped by time and morality. The soldiers are seemingly following brutal orders, yet they show compassion in their post-war conversations. This is the dialogue of people who care about humanity, not those who want to obliterate same.
One particularly bizarre sequence has the troops walking naked in the water on the shore in Beirut, an image that repeats throughout like a reoccurring dream you cannot wake up from. Waltz's message is concise and obvious. All leaders wage war with willing help from their sons who are compelled through a false sense of patriotism that God is on their side. The film ends with actual video footage shot in the camps (dead children) and you realize the horror was quite real.