Waltz with Bashir, Peace with Trauma
Inspired by actual events, written and directed by Ari Folman, “Waltz with Bashir” is an animated war documentary film released in the year of 2008. The title refers to one Israeli soldier losing it and firing all around himself on a street which was papered with posters of the just-assassinated Lebanese President Bashir Gemayel — thus, waltzing with Bashir. Ari Folman used animation as the best way to reconstruct memories, hallucinations, past and present. It is one of those films: after you watch, you have to stay up at night for a few days and think about and also question about life. As the first animated documentary film and a political film, it depicts the importance of forgiveness. But most importantly, it tells people that peace usually comes together with trauma, especially for those veterans. Peace deserves to be treasured and trauma deserves to be cared for.
Ari Folman, writer and director of “Waltz with Bashir”, is an Israeli veteran of the First Lebanon War. He encountered one old friend one day who was suffering from horrible nightmares. In those nightmares, his friend was always chased by 26 ferocious dogs. The nightmares actually contributed to the production of the film by becoming the beginning of it. The fact is, when they served in the First Lebanon War, Folman and his friend once shot many dogs running on the street to death. However, what made Folman surprised was, he could not remember anything about that war. His only real memory was no memory at all: it was a dream, a reverie, in which he and his fellow teenage soldiers emerged from the sea and waded on to the beach at Beirut. His memories remained particularly hazy. Even though they are living in a relatively peaceful world right now, both Folman and his friend are suffering from different kinds of trauma: Folman’s hazy memories and his friend’s nightmares. After talking and sharing with each other, Folman and his friend concluded that his friend’s nightmares were definitely connected to fateful missions during the First Lebanon War, as well as Folman’s memories. To figure out what happened and to uncover the truth, Folman connected with some of his old friends back then and interviewed them, which led to the birth of this film, Waltz with Bashir.
As mentioned above, the ingenuity of this film is to adopt animation to represent true stories and history. The nightmares which Folman’s friend had about 26 ferocious dogs are the explicit reflections of trauma that those veterans have. There are two types of nightmares, one is a fictive thought that has never happened, the other is a cruel past that cannot be looked back. In contrast, the latter is more horrifying. Taking “Waltz with Bashir” and the history which the film was based on as examples, those bloods and deaths have left scars not only on their bodies, but also in their brains and hearts, which become the nest for nightmares. Trauma is closely related to nightmares. Only those veterans can have deep feelings about what and how important the peace means to all humankind. In June 1982, Israeli forces invaded Lebanon on a large scale, occupying one-third of its territory, and the troops gathered in the outskirts of Beirut. In the three days, more than one thousand women, children and old people were slaughtered by Israeli aggressors and Christian militia in the refugee camps. As the witness of that massacre, Ari Folman and his friend both suffered. When they embraced peace, they had traumas with them at the same time.
Peter Bradshaw says, “vivid and horrifying events leading up to the massacres are disinterred by the film’s quasi-fictional reconstructive procedure, somewhere between oral history and psychoanalysis” (The Guardian). One of the film’s themes, peace with trauma, is well depicted by the cruel details. Firstly, the beginning is gorgeous: 26 ferocious wild dogs smashed through the street. The metaphor of “ferocious dogs” is like the “killing knife” entering the city, like “trauma” entering “peace”. Secondly, the rain is a unique image of the film, blending in with a dim sky, which implies that the rain is like trauma, while coming from the sky is like peace. The clouds in the sky and the shadows of adults holding their children’s hands are both real beauty of life. Moreover, there is one scene of the most “witty cruelty” in the film: the soldiers got off the train and hugged their relatives who were waiting for them for a long time. However, within a few seconds, the whistle sounded and they could only get on the train again and say goodbye to the beloved ones. Obviously, all those soldiers were looking forward to peace. But, at that time peace is something they cannot control, which is the same as trauma: even though they do not want, they suffer from it after the war ends.
How horrifying is peace’s opposite, war? How horrifying is trauma? About war, the most horrifying thing is that human beings lose their senses. The individuals on both sides of the war are true victims. How many people truly believe in the role of war to sacrifice themselves for the country? The young people on the battlefield are not fanatical about the use of force. They are just suddenly pushed to the battlefield by the society during the age of laughter. Thus, the individual loses the right to choose. They forget they are entitled to choose. There is one scene from the film which arises a different thinking. One war correspondent recalls that when he was with the army, he described the war with static photos: the ruins, the dead soldiers, the sky with smokes. However, when he saw horses that were slaughtered with their blood flowing into the river, he thought those horses were innocent. Here what ironic is, people had become numb under the circumstances of the war. It is horrifying to see that mercy can only be reawakened by the death of animals instead of the death of people. Back then, peace for them was luxury which they could not dare to recall. About Trauma, the nightmares such as those 26 dogs are only one tip of the iceberg. War is traumatizing — principally for the soldiers (Antuon). And trauma does not only have strong negative impacts on individuals, but also on their relatives and the society.
“Waltz with Bashir” does not aspire to reveal the true details of the war. Rather, it is concerned with memory and the very process of remembering, as well as with the ethical questions that they pose to both the film’s protagonists and its viewers. Peace comes with innumerable sacrifice together with trauma. Trauma caused by war to people’s psychology and life is often beyond the imagination and understanding of ordinary people: traumatic pictures are constantly appearing in mind which cause nightmares; as well as other symptoms, such as insomnia, inattention and poor memory. This film calls upon the importance of peace and attention to trauma. Peace does not come easily. It should be treasured. And trauma needs to be cared about. Just as Hedley says, “interesting not only for the way the film is presented, but also in the way it evokes a mournful mood of regret with such clarity” (Hedley). Overall, “Waltz with Bashir” is an extraordinary film — a military sortie into the past in which both viewers and Folman are embedded like traumatised reporters, which leads to its success.
