Ari Folman uses animation to show what people cannot reliably remember, and we trust him most when he admits what he cannot know. His images make difficult experiences absorbing; his explanations sometimes continue after we have understood.
Fi1m perspective
In Waltz with Bashir (2008), combat appears in vivid yellows and greens, and a conversation can open into a dream. Folman uses animation to let us see how a recollection changes as someone tries to recover it. We recommend the film warmly because those changes make the search absorbing without making the war comfortable to watch. We were disturbed by how readily we admired the coloured battle images while listening to people struggle to recall their experiences.
His early features included Saint Clara (1996), co-directed and co-written with Ori Sivan. Waltz with Bashir brought his own incomplete memories of the 1982 Lebanon War into an animated documentary, with Folman writing, directing and voicing himself. He asks other people to help him recall his service, which usefully limits his authority. We are listening to someone who needs answers and cannot supply them all himself.
His collaborators include art director and illustrator David Polonsky and animation director Yoni Goodman. In Waltz with Bashir, the animated combat keeps us looking, while the animation of the interviews can be stiff enough to distract from the speakers. Richter’s music supplies an appropriate sadness without having to manufacture every feeling. Folman trusts the effort of remembering to hold our attention, though some interviews continue explaining after we have understood.
That patience has another risk: a soldier’s damaged memory can take up so much of a film that wider questions of responsibility are pushed aside. In Waltz with Bashir, Folman’s willingness to make remembering uncomfortable for himself keeps those questions alive. We find his treatment of guilt convincing, though that is not a reason to stop asking what his personal account leaves out.
The Congress (2013) broadened the experiment, combining live action and animation to examine identity and virtual reality. Its ideas do not always hold together, and the shift between forms can be awkward. Where Is Anne Frank (2021), an animated reimagining of Anne Frank’s story, continued his interest in historical memory. Start with Waltz with Bashir, and do not expect the drawn images to make the war any easier to watch.
Biography
Ari Folman is an Israeli film director, screenwriter and composer. He was born on 17 December 1962 in Haifa and studied at Tel Aviv University’s Department of Film and Television. He served in the Israel Defense Forces during the 1982 Lebanon War.
Folman is best known for the animated documentary Waltz with Bashir (2008), which he directed, wrote and voiced; the film draws on his experiences in the Lebanon War. His other credits include the feature The Congress (2013) and the animated film Where Is Anne Frank (2021). He was head writer on the Israeli series BeTipul, later adapted as In Treatment.
