A Look Back at Ari Folman's 2008 Israeli Anti-War Documentary Waltz with Bashir

WALTZ WITH BASHIR

(Ari Folman, 2008, Germany/France/Israel, 90 minutes) 

This is an expanded version of a review originally written for Amazon that moved around over the years.

Oscar nominee and César Award winner for Best Foreign Film, Ari Folman's Waltz with Bashir presents an intriguing riddle: is a documentary still a documentary if it's animated? Taking over where fact-based animations like Richard Linklater's Waking Life or Brett Morgen's Chicago 10 left off, Israel's Folman uses animation to wrap his head around 1982's Lebanon War (and takes his title from Lebanese leader Bashir Gemayel).

Why, Folman wonders at the outset, do disturbing dreams plague his former army colleagues, while he remembers nothing? He meets with nine of them to find out. As they speak, animated sequences bring their recollections to life, but instead of rotoscope or video-capture, Folman first shot his film on video and then assembled an animated version from the storyboards. 

This graphic-novel approach suits their strange, surrealistic stories, and parallels the work of Black Hole mastermind Charles Burns, who tends to walk on the shadowy side, unlike Iran-born Marjane Satrapi's more fanciful graphic novel and documentary Persepolis (co-directed with Vincent Paronnaud), which depicts political turmoil from a young person's POV. 

 

And it's hard to imagine Jonas Poher Rasmussen's 2021 documentary, Flee, the first-person account of an Afghan refugee in Denmark, without Folman's example--animation also suits Rasmussen's film perfectly. 

War may be hell for people of all ages, but Folman ensures that moments of grace and beauty shine through, best exemplified by Roni Dayag’s recollection of a late-night swim away from the scene of a beachfront battle. Decades later, he still remembers the soothing peacefulness of the water. 

These reminiscences nudge Folman's repressed memories back to the surface, culminating in a horrific massacre to which he bore witness. Arguably, he didn't need to include actual footage of the Palestinian casualties when stylized graphic images get the point across just fine. 

If Waltz with Bashir isn't a documentary in the conventional sense--some sources classify it as a docudrama--it doesn't resemble most animated efforts either. What matters more is the harrowing narrative Folman constructs from out of the minds of these haunted men. Himself included.

Images from the IMDb. Waltz with Bashir is available to stream for free on Tubi. It's also available on DVD and through a number of digital pay operators, including Apple TV, Google Play, Prime Video, Vudu, and YouTube.