Waltz with Bashir

The best film I've seen all year.

G. Dellabarca Nobody (?)

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Intelligent, gripping, powerful, visually mesmerizing, I just love this movie. Hands down the best film I've seen all year, and I've seen well over a hundred.

It's about an ex-Israeli soldier who can't remember anything from the Lebanon war. He decides to try and get his memories back by talking to old friends who served with him. As they tell their stories, the fog starts to lift and eventually his memory comes flooding back.

WALTZ WITH BASHIR was first shot as a traditional documentary, and the voices from those interviews and discussions are the ones in the film. The final visuals are all animated though, and what beautiful evocative animation it is. The images brought to life are gritty but bathed in a vaguely dream-like light. For me it perfectly captures the way your memory slightly distorts things.

It's also a history lesson, as I knew nothing about the 1982 Israeli invasion of Lebanon before watching the film. The arbitrary destruction that transpires is shocking and it's depiction makes this a powerful anti-war movie.

WALTZ WITH BASHIR played at Cannes this year, and it won Best Animated Feature at the Asia Pacific Screen Awards. This film is the Israeli entry for Best Foreign Film at the upcoming Oscars where it is hotly tipped for the award. Go see it and find out why.