Israeli Films 4: Waltz with Bashir

One of the many innovations that the excellent Mayor of Paris, Bertrand Delanoë, has recently introduced is a series of periods when the Paris Cinemas offer reduced seat prices to everyone.
Perhaps not as important as his introduction of Velib - an almost free bicycle service which covers all of Paris, there are bicycle racks every 300 metres – and free wireless (Paris wifi) connections in parks and libraries, the cinema initiative has resulted in increased attendance at the large number of Paris cinemas, where already the public must be one of the most film aware in the world.

Taking advantage of the Mayor’s cheap cinema offer, I recently saw the Israeli animated film “Waltz with Bashir” (Golden Palm, Cannes Film Festival 2008) and was duly impressed by the healthy state of the Israeli Film industry, as this was only one of a series of award-winning films I have recently seen from that country (see my blogs tagged Israeli Films). This film deals with the psychological trauma induced in soldiers by war, specifically here in Israeli soldiers, including the Director Ari Folman, who witnessed, and here documents, the atrocity of the Phalangist massacre of Palestinians in the Sabra and Chatilla camps in 1982. Sensitively portrayed, the film nevertheless inevitably contains scenes of violence (and also of unrelated sex – de rigeur in Israeli films) which makes it suitable only for adult audiences. A novelty is that the voice-overs are of the actual personages portrayed, adding authenticity to what might otherwise be considered as only a cartoon film.

A film not to be missed, independently of one’s political view of the Middle East, adding ammunition to those voices who claim that war corrupts all who are touched by it.