Certainly a novelty among the films competing for the Palme D’Or in Cannes, Israeli director Ari Folman’s Waltz With Bashir is billed as the world’s first animated documentary feature. It has already made an impact equivalent to French-Iranian animation Persepolis, which premiered here exactly a year ago.
The story begins with the film-maker meeting an old friend from their army days. As young men, they served in the first Lebanon war of the early 80s. Folman’s pal is plagued by nightmares featuring the 26 dogs he shot one night in order to facilitate the silent ambush of a Lebanese town. Folman goes on to chronicle the troubled recollections of other friends from that time.
The artistic triumph of Waltz With Bashir is that, instead of 90 minutes of middle-aged male talking heads, the events being described are strikingly animated on-screen. And because audiences are overly familiar with filmed images of Middle East conflict, the eerie animation provides a fresh perspective on troubled times. In seven cases, the original voices of Folman’s old buddies are preserved; in two, the men requested their words be rerecorded by actors. What emerges is a story of an Israeli army ordered to stand by as Christian Phalangists staged a massacre of Palestinian refugees, in revenge for the killing of their leader Bashir Gemayel.
The challenging subject matter means that it’s not yet certain that Waltz With Bashir will reach the crossover audiences that are currently enjoying Persepolis around the world, but one friend suggested an alternate, more commercial title that might help it do just that: 26 Dogs. He may be on to something.
Please can anyone let me know who is the UK distributor for Waltz With bashir?
lynne@bathfilmfestival.org.uk
Posted by: Lynne Locker | July 02, 2008 at 09:11 PM
Please can anyone let me know who is the UK distributor for Waltz With bashir?
lynne@bathfilmfestival.org.uk
Posted by: Lynne Locker | July 02, 2008 at 09:11 PM