Saturday May 23 Waltz with Bashir (18)

90 mins, Israel 2008 Directed by Ari Folman

Late one night, animator Ari Folman went to the aid of a friend plagued by terrifying nightmares, which stemmed from a period when both young men served as conscripts in the Israeli army.

They took part in the 1982 massacre of Palestinian civilians at the refugee camps of Sabra and Shatila, but Folman realises that he has no concrete memories of that period of his life, and his film is an attempt to unlock his subconscious to confront the facts of something so traumatic that the memory has been completely suppressed. He rounded up his former friends and colleagues, filmed interviews and then converted them into cartoon form.

But the film is far more than an animated series of talking heads – the individual narratives are illuminated and enhanced by bizarre dream-like sequences and wild flights of fantasy to create an ingenious, hypnotic, sometimes playful, but also deadly serious anti-war statement.

The animation serves to convey the emotional dislocation and surreal quality of the experience of modern warfare, and it succeeds where live footage fails, engaging and jarring an audience arguably numb to the impact of news footage and documentary photography.

Like Persepolis, Folman’s film demonstrates the capacity of the animated image to effectively interrogate the most pressing political issues. A rare and remarkable film and a highlight of 2008.

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