Waltz with Bashir: A Lebanon War Story
Ari Folman and David Polonsky

Waltz With Bashir is the record of Israeli film-maker Ari Folman’s journey to shed light on a dark chapter of his life.
As a 19-year-old soldier, he was present at the killing of Palestinians in the refugee camps of Sabra and Shatila, a revenge exacted by Christian militia for the killing of Lebanese president Bashir Jumayel, a Christian.
But for more than 20 years after that, he had no memory of that night in September 1982 and the role he played.
One’s instinct for survival and self- preservation is so strong that when faced with something unbearable, one either detaches himself from what is happening or blocks it out altogether.
As Folman speaks to fellow veterans of the 1982 invasion of Lebanon to piece together the past, he recalls the ugly truth of the killing.
He also wrote and directed the animated feature film of the same name which has won more than 20 awards.
Here, the unflinching chronicle is accompanied by beautiful drawings by David Polonsky, who was the art director and chief illustrator for the movie.
He depicts grey and yellow nightmare scenarios, sepia-hued memories of war and full-colour contemporary life with equal aplomb.
While the sketches might distance one from the horror of what took place, the final two pages of photographs – of dead Palestinians sprawled in the streets and of a woman devastated by grief – close that gap.

If you like this, read: We Wish To Inform You That Tomorrow We Will Be Killed With Our Families: Stories From Rwanda by Philip Gourevitch (1999, US$10.20 or S$15.30, amazon. com). A harrowing portrayal of genocide which asks the piercing question: Why was nothing done to stop the killings in Rwanda?
(ST)