Waltz With Bashir

From Friday 21st November 2008 | book tickets
Daily at 4.30pm, 5.45pm and 9pm

1hr 27, Israel/Germany/France 2008. Written and directed by Ari Folman. English subtitles.

One night in a bar, an old friend tells film director Ari about a recurring nightmare in which he is chased by 26 vicious dogs. Every night, the same number of beasts. The two men conclude that there's a connection to their Israeli Army mission in the first Lebanon War of the early eighties. Ari is surprised that he can't remember a thing about that period in his life. Intrigued and perplexed, he decides to meet and interview old friends and comrades around the world as a means of reclaiming his own memories...

Documentary filmmaker Ari Folman delves deeply into his own history to produce this tremendously powerful anti-war movie, presented in the form of an animated documentary. From its vibrant opening sequence of the baying pack of hounds, all burning eyes and slavering jaws, the film's muscular but haunting visual style jolts us into engagement far more effectively than any more conventional approach would achieve. Folman's considerable experience as a documentary maker serves him and his material well, his storytelling skills building a cohesive narrative from his own recollections and those of his friends. Drawing parallels between Nazi death camps and the refugee camps in which Palestinians were housed and persecuted in Lebanon, the film also serves as an indictment of the futile and surreal nature of war in general – soldiers grooving to pop music one moment, taking pot shots the next. Highly personal and politically charged, this is a uniquely potent study of innocence lost and memory regained.

click here to watch the trailer