Quartile rating: 8/10 · 1 rating
An Israeli film director interviews fellow veterans of the 1982 invasion of Lebanon to reconstruct his own memories of his term of service in that conflict.
Waltz with Bashir is a singular achievement in documentary filmmaking — its rotoscoped animation used to excavate traumatic memory of the 1982 Sabra and Shatila massacre is genuinely unprecedented in form and devastating in effect. The plot structure, built around fragmented recovered memory, is intellectually rigorous and emotionally raw, earning a top mark. The cinematography (animated but conceived cinematically) is stunning, with iconic dreamlike sequences that burn into the mind. Novelty is unquestionably exceptional — no film quite like it exists. The ending, where animation abruptly gives way to real archival footage, is powerful but divides audiences and feels somewhat abrupt as a formal device rather than a fully earned resolution. Voice acting and interview subjects are naturalistic and effective but not transcendent.