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Waltz with Bashir: A Groundbreaking Animated Documentary
Ariel Folman’s singular, innovative, influential masterpiece is more relevant than ever
Brad Bird, director of The Iron Giant and The Incredibles, once threatened to punch the next person he met who referred to animation as a genre. It is a technique; a treatment that can be applied to all genres, including the documentary. The recent Oscar buzz around the outstanding Flee (which as far as I’m concerned ought to have won Best Animated Film) proves Bird’s point. It also provides an opportune moment to revisit the groundbreaking Waltz with Bashir, an extraordinarily bold, shocking, visually stunning animated documentary that broke phenomenally innovative new ground for animation when first released in 2008.
Based on a true story, the film is about writer/director Ari Folman, who fought in the Israel/Lebanon war of 1982, but has no memory of it. Throughout the story, he attempts to piece together fragments of his repressed memories by interviewing those who fought alongside him. It gradually becomes clear Folman was present at a terrible massacre so traumatic he blacked it out.
The extraordinary animation is used to riveting effect. Whether depicting a rain-swept Tel Aviv, hallucinatory visions and dreams, fierce battles, or the stunning…