What it is: Israeli filmmaker Ari Folman interviews nine colleagues who fought with him in 1982’s Lebanon War about the disturbing dreams that have plagued them since (Folman cannot remember anything about that period). He grabs their experiences and captures them in a graphic-novelesque animated vision. It’s animated, and it’s a foreign-language film, but it’s also a documentary.
Why It’s Significant: Considered a shoo-in for the Best Foreign-Language Film Oscar (but upset by Japan’s Departures), Waltz With Bashir was also ignored by the Animated and Documentary categories. And why wouldn’t it? After all, it’s such a rare feat that a film can integrate all three genres in such a seamless way that the mainstream might be confounded at how to categorize it. Folman’s surrealist way of portraying the soldier’s dreams and memories displays not only the horrors of war but some moments of beauty as well. Below is our exclusive interview with Folman. --Ellen
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