After "Waltzing with Bashir" became a hit at the 2008 Cannes Film Festival, it returned to the director's homeland of Israel for its premiere.
In Cannes, the "etiquette reminder" before the screening was: "Please turn off your mobile phone." But in Israel, the "etiquette reminder" before the screening became: "When the air defense siren goes off, please don't panic, follow the instructions, there are Exit in order."
At this time, more than 20 years have passed since the Fifth Middle East War (the film's background), but Israel is still under the threat of war.
"Waltzing with Bashir" builds on director Ali Forman's own experiences as he and his comrades go through the nightmarish experiences of the Fifth Middle East War.
This nightmare has never been far from Ali Forman, it has never been far from Israel, it has never been far from the Middle East, and the endless nightmare of war still haunts the people who live here.
After "Waltzing with Bashir" received a huge response in the international film industry, some Western reporters expressed concern to director Ali Forman: whether this film reflecting on the war but also criticizing the Israeli army can be released in Israel ?
The answer is yes, the film can be screened in Israel without any problems. Ali Forman also emphasized that he is completely free to create in Israel, and even the government will provide funds to support his creation without interfering with his creative freedom.
Regarding the Middle East war and the Israeli-Palestinian peace, Israel, both official and private, has a real reflection. Of course, reflection does not mean concessions, nor does it mean giving up the military confrontation. But reflection can, at least to some extent, prevent a recurrence of tragedies—such as the horrific tragedies of the Sabra-Shatila massacre.
The Sabra-Shatila massacre is at the heart of Waltz with Bashir's nightmare. At the end of the film, director Ali Forman deliberately inserted 50 seconds of real images of the Holocaust - when nightmares come to the real world, what are the nightmares?
Ali Forman said: "The reason why you want to leave thousands of people killed, children killed, women killed, old people killed is because I wanted to make this film a kind of balance, that 50 Seconds of real footage is crucial to me."
As a former Israeli soldier and a bystander to that massacre, Ali Forman expressed his repentance in this way. This is the bottom line of Ali Foreman's conscience, and it is also the bottom line of each of us.
"Waltzing with Bashir" is a cartoon, but it is not a cartoon in the general sense, as Ali Forman said: "I don't want the audience to think after watching the film, 'This is It's a cool animated film.'"
From the perspective of painting style and music, "Waltzing with Bashir" can be regarded as a very "cool" cartoon, but only cold audiences will use "cool" to define it.
The heaviness and authenticity of "Waltzing with Bashir" is beyond its artistic features. "Cool" is just an appropriate and effective way of expressing Ali Forman.
"Documentary animated film" seems to be an impossible term, but "Waltzing with Bashir" can indeed be "classified" in this way. The "interviews" in the film are all from real interview materials. Most of the reconstructions of war scenes are based on facts. As for the part of the dream, it can be said that it comes from "psychological truth".
The 25 wolves at the beginning, the giant "goddess" with a "magnificent mind", the director's "vertigo" when entering the airport, etc., may seem absurd, but they can all be regarded as the excellent subconscious of PTSD (post-traumatic stress disorder). case.
In the film, what is even more absurd is that the soldiers fired blindly after entering the battlefield, the commander's red Mercedes imagined, and the soldiers who waltzed with Bashir, and so on.
In addition to showing the cruelty of war, "Waltzing with Bashir" is even more awe-inspiring to me because it also shows the nihility and absurdity of war - as Ali Forman said: "Ordinary soldiers are always political leaders. It's just a chess piece."
The emptiness and absurdity of war is something that most people who are deeply involved in and outside the war cannot "understand". This is one of the greatest sorrows of mankind.
After Waltzing with Bashir, Ali Foreman directed an equally profound animated film, The Futurology Conference (2013). Ali Foreman was still a rookie in animation when he directed "Waltzing with Bashir," and he almost single-handedly pushed the boundaries of animation.
In "Futurology Conference", science fiction, real life, and animation are mixed together. Ali Forman has created a future world, a doomsday world, a world in which human beings are confused, a world that has lost authenticity, and, a The way the world could end...he pushed the boundaries of animation again.
It has been 11 years since "Waltzing with Bashir" came out. The nightmare of the war in the film is still in endless reincarnation...
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