Israel’s Waltz with Injustice

By WAJAHAT ALI

Waltz with Bashir, an autobiographical “animated documentary” from Israeli filmmaker Ari Folman, examines the repressed memory and guilt of an IDF soldier’s participation in the horrific 1982 Sabra and Shatila Massacre of Palestinian refugees, while simultaneously offering a sobering reminder of Israel’s current, brutal military offensive in Gaza.

The audience accompanies Folman on this unique, aesthetic journey – a vivid animated film originally redrawn from real, taped interviews – fluidly existing in a mental purgatory of unreliable recollections, suppressed memories and haunted images. Through the movie, which is a striking collection of original interviews, flashbacks, dreams and war vignettes, Folman attempts to recollect his blocked memory of the fateful night of September 15, 1982 when nearly 2,000 innocent Palestinian refugees were brutally massacred in Lebanon by enraged Lebanese Christian Phalangist forces seeking revenge for their assassinated President, Bashir Gemayel.