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Waltz with Bashir
ואלס עם באשיר
2008 90 min Australia, Belgium, Finland, France, Germany, Israel, Switzerland, United States of America R 16+
★8.5
Animation, Documentary, Drama, War
Director: Ari Folman
Trailers
Description
An Israeli film director interviews fellow veterans of the 1982 invasion of Lebanon to reconstruct his own memories of his term of service in that conflict.
Budget:
$1.5M
US Gross:
$2.28M
Worldwide:
$11.18M
Starring
Ari Folman
Actor
Ron Ben-Yishai
Actor
Ronny Dayag
Actor
Awards
Golden Globe 2009
— Best International Feature Film
César Awards 2009
— Best International Feature Film
European Film Awards 2008
— Best Original Score
Academy Awards 2009
— Best International Feature Film
Cannes Film Festival 2008
— Palme d'Or
Golden Globe 2009
— Best International Feature Film
César Awards 2009
— Best International Feature Film
BAFTA 2009
— Best International Feature Film
European Film Awards 2008
— Best Original Score
BAFTA 2009
— Best Animated Feature
Key opinion
Waltz with Bashir is a landmark animated documentary that uses a haunting, surreal visual style to reconstruct the repressed memories of soldiers during the 1982 Lebanon War. By blending personal testimonials with a stark, painterly aesthetic, the film offers a raw and visceral exploration of collective guilt and the psychological trauma of war.
| Ending | The transition from stylized animation to raw, archival footage in the final act provides a shattering and necessary confrontation with historical reality. | |
| Score | The atmospheric and haunting musical score acts as a perfect, rhythmic backbone to the film's surreal and often dream-like imagery. | |
| Originality | Using animation as an artistic medium allows the director to bypass the limitations of live-action, creating a more profound expression of the soul's trauma and the fragmentation of memory. | |
| Theme | The film succeeds as a universal meditation on war and complicity, transcending its specific local Israeli political context to resonate with audiences familiar with other conflicts. | |
| Production | Viewers are divided on the visual aesthetic; some find the hand-crafted, layered drawings to be an immersive masterpiece, while others perceive the 'robot-like' movement and stiffness as technically crude. |