Waltz with Bashir

Fig .1. poster

"Waltz with Bashir" is a overwhelming animation, which tells the story of the Lebanon war. It shows the viewer the tragic scenes of innocent civilians being massacred because their country did not have the power to stop them and those who did to little action.

The film is an animated but also follows the documentary format, this allows for more creativity and storytelling. The film is able to take the viewer deep into the mind of Ari Folman and take the journey with him as he regains his memory of the war. The animation is able to reconstruct fantasies, dreams, hallucination and nightmares which works well for what the film is trying to achieve.

The war is seen by most as a nightmare that they are greying to forget, Ari searches for the "truth" but it always seems out of his grasp. He interviews his army friends to see if together they can form one unified "truth" but their memories are also quite hazy.


Watching the film is is clear that there are no inherit heroes or villains, people are show as victims in some way, whether it be those who lost their live or those who were ordered to take the lives. In that senses the film tells the spectator that there is no unified truth, good and bad are taken out of the equation. The most powerful shot in the film is the last one where reality is forced onto the spectator, showing that what happened was not just a story told for the purpose of the film. It show real People, real bodies piled up, no grave just death. 

Illustration list

figure 1 poster: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/9/9f/Waltz_with_Bashir_Poster.jpg  (accessed 28/02/2016)