Films › Ari Folman

Waltz with Bashir (2008)

Film

DirectorAri Folman

Meta takes3

Figures

Objects & symbols

The recurring motif of soldiers as passive spectators to violence

Locations

The surreal, hallucinatory animated sequences (e.g., giant naked woman emerging from the sea) → The Unspeakable Void

Form & technique

The film's final shift from animation to live-action archival footage of the massacre's aftermath
The film's narrative structure, which replaces an objective historical account with a fragmented, personal quest

Tropes

The animated, non-photographic bodies of the soldiers
Ari Folman's quest to recover memories of an event he witnessed but did not comprehend → The Hand-Me-Down Haunting
The film's generic form as an "animated documentary"
The near-total absence of speaking Arab characters and the visual representation of Beirut → The Exoticized Other

Films most connected to Waltz with Bashir

Incendies (2010) — via The Hand-Me-Down Haunting, The Unspeakable Void
Dune (1984) — via The Exoticized Other
Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (1989) — via The Exoticized Other
Once Upon a Time... in Hollywood (2019) — via The Exoticized Other
Raise the Red Lantern (1991) — via The Exoticized Other
Bram Stoker's Dracula (1992) — via The Exoticized Other
Farewell My Concubine (1993) — via The Exoticized Other
Aftersun (2022) — via The Hand-Me-Down Haunting