Drawn-out Conflict

Sydney Morning Herald

Friday September 12, 2008

Helen Barlow

Ari Folman realised his shattering war experiences could only be depicted through animation. reports Helen Barlow.

A NEW trend shows animation is not just for telling childrens' stories. In fact, it can be an effective means of relating deeply personal histories and events.

Marjane Satrapi allowed us a glimpse into her upbringing in Iran in Persepolis. Now Israeli filmmaker Ari Folman (Clara's Song) delves into his own conflicting memories of being in the Israeli army during a particularly horrendous time in his region's history: the 1982 massacres conducted by the Lebanese Christian militia in the Palestinian camps of Sabra and Shatila.

His movie, Waltz With Bashir, is not so much about the event as about how he dealt with it. As with Persepolis last year, the film was a part of this year's Cannes competition. It did very well at the box office when it was released in France.

Interestingly, Folman's artful take didn't go down as well in Israel, where audiences are more used to realistic depictions of war.

"There was no other way of making this film except as an animation," says Folman, who plunged his life's savings into the $2 million film, which he made over four years with a loyal group of friends.

"I didn't have the budget for a feature film and it wouldn't have been as interesting. Who wants to see a 45-year-old man being interviewed about something that happened 20 years ago?"

The film - which flashes between images of Folman as a rock-star soldier on a beach with bombs exploding in the background and his hallucinations of drifting on an iridescent sea on top of a huge naked woman - to his later therapy sessions with a psychiatrist is evocative rather than literal. There are pictures of the massacre at the end - "to make it clear that these things happened," he says.

Backed by thundering rock music, the images pulsate in the fashion of movies such as A Scanner Darkly, yet Folman insists there is no rotoscoping here: "We didn't paint on video. It's all drawn."

The idea for the film began five years ago as Folman was about to leave the Israeli army reserve and was offered free psychiatric counselling for research purposes. "I went for seven sessions and when I'd finished I realised it was the first time in 20 years that I'd told my story, even to myself," he says.

"All my life I'd never dealt with it. Before I made the film I would look at photos of myself when I was 18 or 19 and I wouldn't recognise myself. It was as if it was me but in some other life. Now I can look at the drawings in the film and go, 'Yeah, that's me!' Now we are the same person."

Fulman has been able to look back at the events more clearly.

"After the first photos of the massacre were released, for us Israelis it was a direct connection with our Jewish history and that is why people reacted so loudly. From my point of view it was a turning point.

"For the future, I am optimistic. I mean, you have to be optimistic if you make these kinds of films."

WALTZ WITH BASHIR

Director Ari Folman Voices of Ari Folman, Ron Ben-Yishai Rated MA15+. Out now.

smh.com.au/metro

See the trailer

© 2008 Sydney Morning Herald

Back to News Index | Back to Home