Israel’s Supreme Court ruled on the 15th. Taking into account the government’s opinion, the court did not agree to declassify the 1982 Lebanese massacre investigation report. Xinhuanet,
however, the participants in the massacre are not necessarily the same as the government. At the time of the incident, the existence of the government may only be a bald and blessed middle-aged man in a building hundreds of kilometers away who was eating a hearty breakfast and having a conference call. The existence of the government may be just a few simple orders: fire! bombing! The tank is over! Sometimes it is an indifferent statement: Everything is under the control of our army, there is nothing to panic. The army, as a symbol of the government, is made up of living bodies. What they want to slaughter, directly or indirectly, is also a living body that has something in common with them. So, why do they want to get rid of this memory?
Folman, a young and handsome Israeli boy, had just been dumped by his girlfriend before he was enlisted in the army. On the helicopter to Lebanon, the only thought in his mind: "If I die on the battlefield, she will regret it for a lifetime." And his comrades-in-arms are more romantic, thinking that the trip to Lebanon is like a war-themed foreign travel. It's nothing terrible, it's just going through a movie in person. But why is the comrade-in-arms chased by 26 vicious dogs every night in a nightmare twenty years later? I woke up in the same dream every day for months, but I don't remember what happened 20 years ago. As for Folman twenty years later, does he himself remember the massacre? If there is nothing in his mind, why?
Waltz with Bashir ("Waltz with Jameyer") is the third film of Israeli director Ari Folman and a semi-autobiographical animated documentary. Folman was sent to the battlefield in Lebanon during his service in the Israeli army. Suddenly one day when he recalled the war twenty years ago, he found that he didn't remember anything. So he began to do his best to search for memories, from people he knew to people he didn't know, from soldiers who had served together, to psychologists. Most of the time, like the dreamy comic strokes in the movie, this memory journey seems so unreal. The sound of gunshots and the demise of the body seemed to be just echoes from a light-year away in another world. Young, his face is vague, maybe it's not him...maybe it has nothing to do with him, maybe it has nothing to do with audiences like me...
But when the image of the memory gradually becomes complete, the body that disappears in the memory becomes more realistic. Until the last moment, a sense of familiarity struck, and everything was reconnected. Until this time, darkness struck...
"After a full 40 hours of bloody killings, blood was flowing in the ruins of the two refugee camps, and the corpses were everywhere."
Sabra and Shatila Massacre massacred Sabra and Shatila Massacre Introduction (Remembrance of Ruoxue Palestine Information Network)
"The massacre lasted overnight. Two refugee camps became a massacre. Thousands of corpses of men, women, and children were scattered all over the place. Some fell on the street and some were killed at home. Some were killed. Men were tied up, tied together and dragged away on a truck. Some youths had their genitals cut off, some throats were cut, some nipples were cut off, and some people’s heads were chopped off, and some women held tight. Grab his own baby and die..." The
Beirut Massacre on September 15, 1982 (Netease News Channel). The
question is how strong it is to face this darkness?
Zhang Chunru had encountered such darkness when he was studying the Nanjing Massacre and the Chinese railroad workers in the United States. It sucked her light like a black hole, and she chose death. The knife of memories can kill you.
More people, such as the Folman who walked and colored, and those who witnessed the Cultural Revolution, chose to take a detour to decorate the light of life with forgetfulness. There may be few people who can't escape the memory, like Chris Walker, a retired Korean battlefield veteran under the lens of photographer Antonin Kratochvil. Because the memory of the Korean battlefield was so horrible, he tried to eat to death, and turned into a big fat man with his body and bed together. Chris Walker was taken in by the circus and claimed to be "the fattest man in the world" in a glass room, naked for visitors to watch. Maybe the people who watched him didn't know that his fat was a safety net he wove. This net blocked the darkness behind him, trapped in it, and he could temporarily forget his memory.
In the background music of Waltz with Bashir, there is a rather ironic song called Beirut, written by Israeli musician Ze'ev Tene. The soldiers in the movie sang forward in Hebrew: "I bombed Beirut! I bombed Beirut everyday!" The original song is California's alternative rock band CAKE. The original song is called "I bombed Korea!" It can be changed to: "I bombed Iraq!" or "I bombed Georgia!" Wait and so on... The shooting is without purpose. You can't see who you bombed. Just a general name "enemy". For young soldiers who have never traveled far, tourist-like fantasies about the destination are enough to cover up their initial struggles and fears. But then, when the tanks that protect them physically and mentally are blown up, when they have to face real blood and corpses, crying and wailing?
History is constantly repeating, reminiscences, and dying out because of people’s fear of darkness...
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