Synopsis
Acclaimed Israeli filmmaker Ari FOLMAN confesses his own "extraordinary" experiences to a friend who's dreamed a dream starring 26 dogs for 20 long years. In this sensitive autobiographical documentary animation, Ari tries to fill in the crevices of his lost memory from his service in the Israeli army two decades ago. Tracking down his army buddies into the tragic 1982 Lebanon War, he reunites with confusion, conflict, trauma buried deep in his memory. Waltz with Bashir, based on the collective experience of the Israeli soldiers during the 1982 wartime horror, exposes that memory lives on, though changing and availing itself constantly to manipulation. Reverberating with a gentle yet powerful echo against all war atrocities, this 2008 Canne Film Festival competition piece is a classic portrayal of the tug-of-war between war and mankind. (KWON Yong Min)