Waltz with Bashir

Baghdad, Kabul, Grozny, Beirut – names which evoke, more than anything, the war stricken images of televised news. Such associations make creating a documentary on the conflict in these places especially challenging; there are already so many connotations related to the raw footage and a level of desensitisation to the images. They have, regrettably, become a backdrop to domestic life, wallpapered on the small screens and newspapers in our homes.

The success of Waltz with Bashir is the way it has side-stepped this potential pitfall. Through its striking animation (a palette of vivid yellows and greens) a captivating freshness has been achieved. The film follows Ari Folman (the maker of the documentary) as he attempts to remember his experiences of fighting in the Israeli-Lebanon conflict of 1982. He talks to old comrades, war correspondents and psychologists to piece together his suppressed memories. At times we feel as if we are wading through the dreamlike recess of somebody’s subconscious and at other times we are reminded that this is in fact a documentary with classic ‘talking head’ interviews. The result is a film that repeatedly challenges the way we interact with the fictional and the factual in our cinemas, meaning that, when the real footage is used, it feels as harrowing as it should.