ABSTRACT
Waltz with Bashir (Folman, 2008) is a “haunting” film. Many reviewers said this. Traumatic to watch, I would also say. The filmmaker, Ari Folman, draws the viewer quite deliberately into an experience of ghosts and dangers simmering just beneath a chilly, dark surface. Through its structure, through its brilliant use of animation, and through its elegant and deeply satisfying color palette-the ranges of white, grey, black, ochre, and an occasional hit of yellowy-orange-the viewer is brought slowly but inexorably into full consciousness, alongside the narrator, of the long shadow of the Lebanon War and its deep bite into the psyches of soldiers. Somber, moody, anxious: the whole ambience of the film contributes to one central idea: once repression has been unsettled, there is a drive to know, to see, and to bear witness, but progress to this end can also feel like sleepwalking through the dark smoke of a dream.
