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A powerhouse film... The animation initially works as something of a distancing device, giving you the space -- intellectual, emotional -- to process the story and its accumulating horrors. The fluidity of the figures accentuates the air of surreality -- one soldier compares war to an acid trip -- which deepens as the story reaches its terrible end. The finale is stunning, at once a furious act of conscience and a lament. --Manohla Dargis, The New York Times <p> Waltz with Bashir will leave its mark forever on the ethics of war films in general.... Although there are no new elements of that terrible event revealed here for the first time, the context in which they are put is sufficient to deliver a fearful wallop. -- Screen <p> The subject... is transmuted via novel use of animation into something special, strange and peculiarly potent. Surreal touches, deployed with tactical restraint, make Waltz with Bashir extraordinary. -- Variety <p> A film which resonates to the true, real experience of every soldier and to the current experience in Iraq and Afghanistan, Waltz with Bashir is brilliant. -- Facets Multi-Media <p> Waltz With Bashir is an extraordinary, harrowing, provocative picture. We staggered out of the screening in a daze. -- The Guardian (UK)<p> A provocative and wholly adult tour de force. -- Boston Herald <p> Folman has fashioned something artistically unique and expressive. The imagery is at once beautifully drawn, vivid, and disturbing... This deeply compelling film documents the horrors to which Folman and his friends were witnesses, while offering hope that he and others might, some day, heal from the ravages of war. While it's too much to hope that thisor any film might have an impact in the real world that could put an end to mankind's capacity to hurt one another, films like Waltz with Bashir offer us the opportunity to learn about and from history. -- Cinematic USA <p> Persepolis meets Full Metal Jacket in Ari Folman's powerful and original animated war film. -- Globe and Mail (Canada)<p> Waltz with Bashir is animated history, much like Persepolis or Joe Sacco's graphic novels... This strong, strong work leads the audience slowly closer to the massacre until the final, stunning moments almost erupt from the screen. -- Boston Globe <p> Dredging up these dreadful memories may have been therapeutic for the men involved, but the point of Waltz With Bashir is bigger than that.... It is a remarkable, haunting, and intense work, quite unlike any animated film I've ever seen. -- Salon <p> Waltz With Bashir is about the cold fingers of memory that clutch the heart. Folman's exemplary film says that only by exposing the wounds can they begin to heal. The message of the futility of war has rarely been painted with such bold strokes. -- Time <p> A major revelation... An animation that is visually bold and politically combustible, it's based on the director's own experiences as a draftee soldier. This theme of amnesia, as well as the film's stylish and consistently inventive animation, recalls Richard Linklater's A Scanner Darkly as much as it does last year's Persepolis.... An unforgettable portrait of lost innocence. -- Daily Telegraph (UK)<p> Powerful... Waltz with Bashir combines the testimonies of Israeli soldiers who fought in the 1982 invasion of Lebanon with brilliant animation and documentary footage in a uniqueand original manner. -- Al-Ahram Weekly (Egypt)<p> Poised strangely--possibly uniquely--between confessional animation and documentary investigation, Waltz with Bashir explores the director's own experience as an Israeli soldier in Lebanon. That Folman chooses to depict his quest in impressionistic, often dream-like animation makes the film all the more personal, and gives it the urgency of a true cri de coeur. -- The Independent (UK)<p> An innovative, powerful moral essay. --J. Hoberman, The Village Voice

Author Information

ARI FOLMAN, a Tel Aviv based filmmaker, wrote, produced, and directed the animated documentary Waltz with Bashir. His two previous feature films, Saint Clara and Made in Israel, both received numerous Israeli academy awards, among them best film and best director for Saint Clara, which also won the People's Choice Award at the 1996 Berlin Film Festival. In addition, he produces and writes for television, including for the Israeli series In Treatment, which was remade in the United States for HBO. DAVID POLONSKY was the art director and chief illustrator for the animated film Waltz with Bashir. His illustrations have appeared in every major Israeli daily and magazine. He has created animated short films for Israeli television, received multiple awards for his children's book illustrations, and teaches at Bezalel, Israel's prestigious art academy.

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