ALLAN HUNTER at the Movies

ANIMATION has easily outgrown its reputation as the stuff of kid’s stories and family fare. Recent features like the violent Sin City and the thought-provoking Persepolis have led the way in showing how animation can address adult themes.

The award-winning Waltz With Bashir confronts the nightmare of armed conflict using animation to depict the kind of violence and fear that live action might have rendered unbearable.

Director Ari Folman depicts himself as a man who has erased uncomfortable recollections of the past from his mind. He remembers almost nothing of his teenage service in the Israel Defense Forces and his tacit involvement in the massacre of thousands of Palestinian refugees during the first Lebanon War of 1982.

His friend Boaz is not so lucky. He is haunted by the past and a dream of vicious, wild dogs rampaging through the streets of Beirut.

The film unfolds as a thriller-like investigation of the past as Ari tracks down his old comrades, using their accounts to build up a picture of what happened in 1982. He also becomes haunted by a recurring vision of emerging from the sea in the company of his fellow soldiers and heading for the shores of Beirut.

Reminiscent of the soul-searching films created in the aftermath of America’s involvement in Vietnam, Waltz With Bashir is a little repetitive at times, but ultimately emerges as a powerful account of front line warfare and the unreliability of human memory.

Selected nationwide release

Director: Ari Folman
Cast: Ari Folman, Ori Sivan, Ronny Dayag, Shmuel Frenkel, Ron Ben-Yishai
Screenwriter: Ari Folman
Certificate: 18
Running time: 91 mins
Country: Israeli
Year: 2008