When movies usually mix animation and wartime violence, they become action flicks (think GI-Joe cartoons), bloody horror shows or somewhere messy in-between. Yet, Waltz with Bashir (2008) —which is up for an Academy Award in the Best Foreign Language Film category—is surprisingly neither of these. Instead, the beautifully done animation makes the difficult issues in the documentary–such as death, torture, post-traumatic stress disorder, war and suffering— a bit easier to swallow, watch and understand. The cartoon images managed to soften the blow of the sad and troubling story of the first Lebanon War and the Palestinian massacres in Sabra and Shatila.

After hearing about his friend’s recurring dream of being chased by 26 vicious dogs, movie director Ari Folman and his friend connect this nightmare to their experience as soldiers during  the 1982 Lebanon War. It is at this point that Folman realizes that his mind is blank. He doesn’t remember his participation in the war, nor his witnessing of the Sabra and Shatila massacres of Palestinians. This conversation then sparks his first flashback into the times his mind helped him forget.

The movie unfolds beautifully as Folman attempts to bring back his memories of the war and the massacres by interviewing and speaking with others who were involved.

Although an interesting choice to use animation for a film with such deep themes, Folman’s decision turns out to be both extraordinary and appropriate for showing the depth of these issues. The use of animation and cartoons allowed the movie to artistically depict the tricks that the mind can play on people who survive wars and those that witness and commit countless acts of violence.

In this movie, flashbacks, dreams and moving in and out of the past and present are the name of the game. In fact, the memories create the story—they are the story. There is a naked blue woman who appears out of the sea to rescue a soldier, who then climbs upon her stomach and leaves his fellow soldiers back on a ship. This boat is then blown to pieces in an attack as the soldier wearily looks on. These types of flashbacks, or the mind’s attempts to move past traumatic events, are woven into the storyline, which addresses the wounds of soldiers and the pains of war.  The movie’s animation gives us, the viewer, an up-close-and-personal look at post-traumatic stress disorder, without the sharp vivid images of real pictures and images. However, Folman does choose to show a few minutes of the actual video footage of the Palestinian massacre. These powerful images will be painted into the minds of the audience, and serve to reinforce the very depths of horror and trauma endured.

Surprisingly, Bashir isn’t political.  It doesn’t make Israel or Palestine into a hero. Through the interviews with the war’s survivors, Folman paints an animated picture of the emotional and human realities of war as he recreates his own memory. The documentary doesn’t point political fingers. It explains the trauma of war and the Palestinian massacres of Sabra and Shatila by providing first-hand accounts from the people who witnessed it. On screen, Folman interviews a military leader whose soldiers say they saw Christian Phalangist soldiers murder innocent Palestinians by shooting them at gunpoint. No political blame—just animated images that mesmerize the viewer of the human accounts of these times.

And strangely, even without a prior understanding of the history of the Palestinian massacre or the first war of Lebanon , the movie is still able to achieve its goal—to transport the audience into the hearts and minds of people affected by the war.

This documentary could have easily been made today to depict the current Gaza battles because it transformed the viewer into a space of compassion for all of the people involved—Palestinians and Israelis alike. We understand. War is hell.

Tags: animation, Ari Folman, Documentary, foreign film, movie, review, Waltz with Bashir