Waltz with Bashir

(Israel/France/Germany/USA, 2008, 90 minutes)

An Israeli filmmaker who was a soldier in Lebanon at the time of the Sabra and Shatila massacres but has no recollection of them tries to understand why he blocked it out by piecing his past together with the help of his army buddies. Absorbing, serious “animated documentary” that uses a roundabout way to get at its twin subjects of memory and war, with its documentary structure and technique enhanced by the filmmaker's decision to do it in unsophisticated, rotoscoped animation.

A The Match Factory release. A Bridgit Folman Film Gang/Les Films d'Ici/Razor Filmproduktion presentation/production, in co-production with ARTE France and ITVS International, in collaboration with Noga Communications/Channel 8, New Israeli Foundation for Cinema and TV, Medienboard Berlin-Brandenburg, Israeli Film Fund and Hot Telecommunications Services. Directed and written by Ari Folman; animation director, Yoni Goodman; produced by Serge Lalou, Yael Nahlieli, Gerhard Metxner, Roman Paul, Ari Folman; music by Max Richter; art director and illustrator, David Polonsky; director of visual effects, Roiy Nitzan; film editor, Nili Feller.