Waltz with Bashir (2008)
"Vals Im Bashir" (original title)

An Israeli film director interviews fellow veterans of the 1982 invasion of Lebanon to reconstruct his own memories of his term of service in that conflict.

Director:

Ari Folman

Writer:

Ari Folman

Stars:

Ari Folman, Ori Sivan, Ronny Dayag

Nominated for 1 Oscar. Another 39 wins & 26 nominations.

Cast

Complete credited cast:
Ari Folman	...	Himself (voice)
Ori Sivan	...	Himself (voice)
Ronny Dayag	...	Himself (voice)
Shmuel Frenkel	...	Himself (voice)
Zahava Solomon	...	Herself (voice)
Ron Ben-Yishai	...	Himself (voice)
Dror Harazi	...	Himself (voice)
Mickey Leon	...	Boaz Rein-Buskila (voice)
Yehezkel Lazarov	...	Carmi Cna'an (voice)

Storyline

One night at a bar, an old friend tells director Ari about a recurring nightmare in which he is chased by 26 vicious dogs. Every night, the same number of beasts. The two men conclude that there's a connection to their Israeli Army mission in the first Lebanon War of the early eighties. Ari is surprised that he can't remember a thing anymore about that period of his life. Intrigued by this riddle, he decides to meet and interview old friends and comrades around the world. He needs to discover the truth about that time and about himself. As Ari delves deeper and deeper into the mystery, his memory begins to creep up in surreal images.

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Plot Keywords:

interview | lebanon | dog | lebanon war | army | 

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Taglines:

We may forget the past, but the past won't forget us. [Theatrical trailer.]

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Genres:

Animation | Biography | Drama | War

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated R for some disturbing images of atrocities, strong violence, brief nudity and a scene of graphic sexual content

Details

Official Sites:

Official site Official site [France]

Country:

Israel France Germany USA Finland Switzerland Belgium Australia

Language:

Hebrew Arabic German English

Release Date:

12 June 2008 (Israel)

Also Known As:

Waltz with Bashir

Box Office

Budget:

$1,500,000 (estimated)

Opening Weekend:

$69,055 (USA) (26 December 2008)

Gross:

$2,283,276 (USA) (8 May 2009)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Bridgit Folman Film Gang, Les Films d'Ici, Razor Film Produktion GmbH

Technical Specs

Runtime:

90 min

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Artist David Polonsky is right handed, but did most of the illustration for this film with his left hand, as he felt that his original drawing were 'too pretty.'

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Goofs

The song used in the film, "This Is Not A Love Song" by Public Image Ltd, came out in 1983, even though the war and the massacres depicted in the film happened in 1982.

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Quotes

Anonymous soldier: What to do? What to do? Why don't you tell us what to do?
Ari Folman: Shoot!
Anonymous soldier: On who?
Ari Folman: How should I know on who? Just shoot!
Anonymous soldier: Isn't it better to pray?
Ari Folman: Pray and shoot!

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Connections

Referenced in Who Wants to Be a Millionaire: Episode #8.150 (2010)

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Soundtracks

"This Is Not A Love Song"
Written by John Lydon, Keith Levene and Martin Atkins
Performed by PIL (aka Public Image Ltd.)

User Reviews

An extraordinary achievement that redefines the documentary genre

Let's get one thing straight from the beginning: Waltz With Bashir is an animated documentary. It may sound like a paradox, but hey, when the film played at the Cannes Film Festival (which it left with rave reviews but zero awards) it was inevitably compared to Persepolis, which is an animated autobiography. The comparison was also caused by both movies having open anti-war messages, but they couldn't be more different in concept and execution. They do have one important thing in common, though: they are animated not because it looked good, but because it was the best artistic choice the directors could make.

In the case of Ari Folman, the choice was dictated by the unique angle from which he chose to tell the story: subjectivity. Folman, like many young Israeli men in the '80s, joined the army to fight in Lebanon when he was merely 18 (this was in 1982), thinking he could serve his country in the best way possible. Once the war was over, Folman's new career began, and he is now a successful actor, director and writer (among other things, he worked on the TV show that inspired HBO's In Treatment). However, he still wasn't able to completely get over the war experience, and so he decided to make Waltz With Bashir in order to exorcise his demons, so to speak. In doing so, he delivered one of the strongest, boldest documents about the true nature of conflict.

Folman's introspective journey begins with the lack of memory: apparently, he and many of his fellow soldiers have trouble remembering the exact details of what happened in Lebanon. All they have left is dreams, like the haunting nightmare that opens the movie (26 murderous dogs surrounding the apartment of a former soldier, who believes it to be a subconscious punishment for his killing 26 dogs during a mission) or Folman's eerie flashback of himself and his friends emerging from the water after a massacre he can't (or perhaps doesn't want to) remember. Engaging in a pursuit of the truth, the director locates several people with first-hand recollections of those events, and all these people (minus two) supply their own voices for their animated counterparts.

The stream of personal anecdotes and, as said earlier, dreams, made it impossible for Folman to show real footage of what he was trying to say. After all, how do you show a live-action dream sequence in a documentary without making it look corny? Hence the winning choice of rendering the whole story through animation, with just one exception (the final scene, the one that justifies the film's existence, consists of real filmed material). This gives the picture a feel that is both evocative and down-to-earth, a bizarre but powerful combination that has earned Waltz With Bashir comparisons with the similarly merciless Apocalypse Now. Like few other films about war (Folman has openly stated he despises Hollywood's treatment of the Vietnam conflict, not counting Coppola's masterpiece), this strange, captivating opus depicts it without making it look cool: it's ugly, it's reprehensible, it's the stuff nightmares are made of - not for nothing does it still haunt Folman and his friends.

Journey of self-discovery, cinema as psychoanalysis, a document about the past, a warning for the future: Waltz With Bashir is all those things and much, much more. It's a unique piece of cinema, unmatched in its seamless mixture of raw power and peculiar visual beauty.