KEY POINTS:
A new trend shows that animated films are not just for kids. In fact, they can be an effective means of relating deeply personal histories.
As Marjane Satrapi allowed us a glimpse into her upbringing in Iran in
Persepolis, Israeli filmmaker Ari Folman (Clara's Song) now delves
into his own conflicting memories of being in the Israeli army during a fraught moment in his region's history: the 1982 massacres conducted by the Lebanese Christian militia in the Palestinian refugee camps of Sabra and Shatila.
His movie, Waltz with Bashir, is not so much about the event, it is about how he dealt with it.
Like Persepolis in 2007, the film was part of the Cannes competition this year, and, bucking the recent trend of under-performing Iraq war
dramas and documentaries, it did very well 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 wars looking real.
"There was no other way of making this film except as an animation," explains Folman, who plunged his life's savings into the US$2 million ($3.7 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, to his hallucinations of drifting on an iridescent sea atop a huge naked woman, to his later therapy sessions, is evocative rather than literal (though there are real 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 like A Scanner Darkly, yet Folman didn't use the rotoscope
techniques of that film.
"We didn't paint on video. It's all drawn. As filmmakers, that allowed us complete freedom to do whatever we liked. Anything you dream about
you can draw."
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.
"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 ... Now I can look at the drawings in the film and go, 'Yeah, that's me!"'
He has also 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. In Israel I basically believe it's all about leadership and we don't have the right leadership from both parties right now to make any changes. But once we do, I'm sure it will happen."
Who: Ari Folman
What: Waltz with Bashir
When and where: Opens at Auckland's Academy cinema on Thursday