Wednesday 24 April 2013

Film 018 - Waltz with Bashir (2008)

'Vals Con Bashir'

Director - Ari Folman

"We may forget the past, but the past won't forget us."


A film-maker searches for memories of his time during the 1982 invasion of Lebanon in this animated story/documentary by Ari Folman.

What better reason to watch World Cinema than to learn something about other places on this Earth; of its people and its history? Unfortunately this tale simply reaffirms what I already knew – that war anywhere and seen from any angle will always be pure pointless misery. Folman, in trying to understand why he can’t remember the things that happened, appears less bothered by what he does eventually recall than by the fact that he lost them in the first place. But is that an unfair thing to say? Everyone interviewed and depicted in the film appears distant from what they did and saw – a kind of psychological detachment – the brain putting up mental barriers as it were to protect itself and with good reason.

I’m afraid there are no jokes with this review people, even if the film does try and lift the mood occasionally with macabre mirth and gallows humour. It would feel wrong to say I liked or even enjoyed this movie but I can recommend it and value what I got from viewing it.

Lesson to be learned - War and its recurring atrocities has to stop but at the same time must never be forgotten…

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