Waltz with Bashir is an Isreali War Documentary by director Ari Folman. It follows Folman, an isreali war veteran. He goes to a bar to talk to his old friend about a recurring dream that he keeps having. The dream his friend keeps having is that he is being chased through the streets of Lebanon by a pack of 26 vicious dogs. It turns out that this dream is being caused by awful memories of him having to shoot 26 guard dogs during the Lebanon war.
Bringing up the war made Folman try to remember about the events that he had experienced during the Lebanon War. Strangely enough he has no memories of those times.
That night he has a dream of the Lebanon War. Him and his 2 Friends, who he can not identify, rise up from the water. Completely naked. They walk into the city, put clothes on and walk into an immense crowd. The dream ends after that. That had been his first dream or memory of the Lebanon War. So he goes to his friend, who is a psychologist, to see how he can remember or to see if he has a problem with his memory. His friend explains it simply...
"That dream that you had, he said, could not have even happened in real life at all. Sometimes when children have memories of their childhood they remember stuff that didn't even happen at all. Say a child has a memory of the circus. They could have only had a memory of them eating a cone of cotton candy. But as they grow up they hear different stories about clowns and rides and when they remember it again it could be changed by stories of others."
Folman, knows he remembers this memory so he sets of on an adventure to talk to other War veterans about their memories to see if he can remember any of his times in the war.
This film is beautifully made. Folman does not only tell us of other veterans dreams and memories, but shows us them in his own creative way. A way that I or many other people could have pictured it. He also shows us the atrocities of war, by animation. He shows us what the soldiers did to Innocent people. He also speaks of the time when Bashir was running for president. But assassinated the day after.
This film teaches us about thought and memory and war. About one man who is desperate to find out what he did in the Lebanon war but when he finds out he does not feel the excitement. He feels the suffering of other people.
With a beautiful screenplay, score this film is a must see animated documentary. This film is in subtitles though. The animation is beautifull done and I have truly not seen any other film like this gem. This film will be remembered.
Congratulations Folman on the wonderful job and congratulations on the Oscar Nomination.
10/10
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