Different elements are shown in the movie, all interconnected.
1/ The story shows how post-traumatic disorder works in soldiers, how tricky and fanciful human memory is, and how memory hides from our conscious anything that causes us pain and shock. The trips and chats Folman had with some of his old Army fellows and one journalist who covered the events helped him to understand what happened to him.
2/ There is a depiction of the reality of war, with its drama, blood, death, fear, and normality. We see young teen soldiers doing a job that overwhelms them, and their fear being the trigger to kill, not hatred. We also see the happy every-day moments lived in their fight idle days and moments: soldiers listening to music, talking about girls, life plans, and longing for home and a normal life.
3/ There is the narration of the events leading to the massacre of Sabra and Shatila, in which thousands of Muslim civilians (mostly women, children and old people) were pitiless slaughtered by a group called the Christian Phalangists, with the passive connivance of the Israeli Army. We witness with horror the impact that such barbaric acts had on the victims and on those who witnessed the events.
The movie succeeds at presenting such a harsh story by combining different elements in a masterly way.
[1] The movie creates an animated world that is alien and intimate at the same time. This is done by using an unique animation style that is very realistic (very similar to rotoscopy), by using and odd combination of orange & beige hues, and great chiaroscuro, which create an ominous atmosphere that is surreal at times. The recurring image that Folman remembers -he and two soldiers emerging naked from the beach with a gun (as shown in the movie's poster)- shows very well the sense of spiritual abandonment, alienation and regret that permeates the movie.
[2] The movie paces and presents the research for Folman's memory as if it was a mystery movie. We walk side by side with him while he puts together the pieces of his past; the tempo (and the uneasiness) goes in crescendo and ends in the shocking non-animated final minutes of the movie. They moved me to tears.
[3] The movie uses an impacting and soulful soundtrack that will touch you. It mixes some classical music pieces, well known songs of the 1980s, and some songs and musical pieces specifically written for the movie.
[4] The movie showcases the importance of our oniric world to understand our present and to retrieve pieces of our past that lay dormant in our subconscious; they are -and were for Folman- a doorway to any locked-in memories. In fact, the movie starts with a dream, and contains several oniric surrealist scenes.
[5] The movie mixes the harsh images and sub-stories with others full of intimacy, lyricism and poetry, and shows different facets of the life of a soldier and of War.
My main criticism to the movie is that Ari Folman does not explicitly condemn the Israeli involvement in the massacre. He does so implicitly and from a personal point of view, which is full of regret and shame. In a way, the movie is politically correct for the Israelis. To me, the fact that only the Christian Phalangists are depicted as the barbarians and slaughters is a bit washing one's hands. If you see somebody killing frail people and do nothing to stop it or succour them, you are as guilty as the butchers themselves. Most of the victims were women, children and elderly people. How could a soldier do nothing to stop the slaughter?
***
This is one of this movies that everybody should watch, not only because it is a piece of art, but because it as powerful reminder that War debases us all, destroys the lives of all the parties involved, except of those politicians who started them, and whom we elect.One of the most amazing films I have seen in the last years. Multi-layered. Confronting. Lacerating. Unforgettable.
