‘Waltz With Bashir’ creator Ari Folman reflects on newfound notoriety
by dan pine, staff writer
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For Israeli filmmaker Ari Folman, “Waltz With Bashir” was his ticket to the big dance.
His 2008 animated documentary earned an Oscar nomination for best foreign language film and a 2009 Golden Globe for best foreign language film. In Israel, it won the top prize: an Ophir Award for best film.
“Waltz With Bashir” recounts Folman’s harrowing military experience in Israel’s first Lebanon War. Critics praised its starkly drawn beauty, monochromatic palette and layered approach to storytelling.
“The tour was very hectic for me,” he says from his home in Israel. “I did so much press. It was very tough. Somehow my life [in Israel] came back to where it doesn’t change, which is good.”
Why so tough? Unlike most films, which boast a full cast to talk to the media, writer-director Folman was basically a one-man junket when it came to selling “Waltz With Bashir.”
“Not only was making the film extremely personal,” Folman says, “but then I had talk about myself, re-digging the past again and again. It was very exhausting endlessly dealing with myself.”
But he admits all that only when pressed. Folman is thrilled that his movie has captivated global audiences.
“Working in a small lab in the outskirts of Tel Aviv, we had no idea how far the film would go,” he recalls. “When we had the premiere in Cannes, it was over the roof. For the first time after four and a half years working on the film, I realized maybe something big was happening.”
The film addresses Israel’s Lebanon War during the early 1980s, culminating in the Sabra and Shatila massacres of September 1982, during which Christian Phalangists allied with Israel murdered untold hundreds of Palestinians (the film includes gruesome news footage of the aftermath). Folman wanted “Waltz With Bashir” to convey a universal anti-war message.
“In a way, each country reacted to the film like the history of that country,” he says. “In France it was about guilt, mainly because of their past in Algeria. In Germany it was all about me doing the comparison of the Holocaust and the massacre.”
In his home country of Israel, “Waltz With Bashir” found a different response.
“It was attacked by the extreme right wing as not loyal to Zionism and taking our dirty laundry outside. The more the film got on track to the Oscars, it got attacked violently from the left. I got bored with the political arguments. You can’t please everybody.”
At the same time, Folman says the film opened “hearts and scars for a lot of people,” especially among his fellow veterans.
He can’t count how many times former soldiers have approached him and told him their stories.
“War in many ways is like a very bad acid trip,” he says. “That’s how I defined it to my team: completely surreal, nothing to do with everyday life. I wanted to put the audience in that mood with the first frames, and you look for that in each and every scene.”
As much as Folman sought to de-politicize the film, politics always hover about when it comes to Israel. When he thinks back to his service, he reveals some bitterness.
As for the Sabra and Shatila massacres, he says the Israeli army and government bear some responsibility, mostly for not stopping the three days of savagery taking place under their noses. But, he adds, “the film clarifies that Israeli soldiers did not shoot and commit this horrible massacre. For some people it was the first time to learn this.”
Though he still travels to promote the film, Folman is already at work on his next project, a half animated, half live-action science fiction film.
With all the success and notoriety “Waltz With Bashir” has brought him, Folman says his life hasn’t changed much, with one exception.
“The one big change is for the next film I won’t have to mortgage my house or savings,” he says. “The budget is secured.”
A “talkback” with Ari Folman follows a screening of “Waltz With Bashir” at 8 p.m. Tuesday, Oct. 27, at the Jewish Community Center of San Francisco, 3200 California St., S.F. Folman will also join a 5:30 p.m. program for young adults. $10-$18. Information: (415) 292-1200 or http://www.jccsf.org.
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10/24/2009 at 01:10 PM
The Phalangist militias were under the direct command and control of the IDF. The massacres were a coordinated action by the IDF and the Militias. The IDF encircled the camps, turning back all who tried to escape, while the Phalange did the killing. Both are equally guilty. Afterward, the IDF and Phalangists rounded up the survivors and trucked them to a nearby sports stadium. The women and children were released a day or so later; all the military-age males - 15 to 50 - are still missing.
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