With striking imagery set against a brilliant score, director Ari Folman’s self-proclaimed anti-war film Waltz with Bashir (2008) evokes the sense of discontinuity experienced by soldiers everywhere. Folman’s award-winning animated memoir follows his journey into the past to recapture lost memories of his time spent serving in the Israeli Defense Forces during the First Lebanon War. At once jarring and poetic, Waltz with Bashir is characterized by the use of dark humor as the lens through which Folman examines his experience. Using the most modern of paintbrushes, Folman chooses to tell his tale in pictures—a method of storytelling as old as humanity itself. As the 2010 One Film featured selection, Waltz with Bashir is a timely piece that challenges audiences to explore the medium of animation and Israeli cinema and history, and it will also remind viewers of the complexities of war.

Please note that this film is rated “R” by the Motion Picture Association of America for disturbing images of atrocities, strong violence, brief nudity, and sexual content.