Drawing on memories of a massacre

Ari Folman, then a young conscript, took part in the 1982 Israeli invasion of Lebanon and witnessed the massacres of Palestinian men, women and children by Christian Phalangists at Sabra and Shatila refugee camps as revenge for the assassination of their leader Bashir Gemayel.

The Israelis did not perpetrate the killings but did nothing to stop them, even sending flares into the night sky to assist the Phalangists.

Folman blocked the memory from his mind until, many years later, he decided to make a film about his experiences. But this is no ordinary documentary.

It is, in fact, fully animated and one of the most powerful and graphic anti-war movies made in recent years.

The picture of the frenzy of destruction the invasion caused, and the arbitrary treatment of life and death on both sides, is leavened by foot soldiers' humour and the testimony of Israeli war correspondents which eventually led Ariel Sharon, the minister in charge of the Israeli forces, to resign.

Shot as an orthodox documentary and then brilliantly reinvented on the drawing board by David Polonsky and animated by Yoni Goodman, the film's often haunting images are underscored by a music track which includes rock, Bach, Chopin and Schubert.

It is a unique project which works amazingly well.

The director of Persepolis, the fine Iranian animated feature prized last year, is on the jury and she is certain to admire Waltz With Bashir as a second, equally successful attempt to use animation for serious purposes. Sometimes small countries make big films.

Waltz With Bashir