28.1.09

Must See: Waltz With Bashir



this was truly one of the most beautifully crafted and stirring and heartwrenching films I've ever seen. Waltz With Bashir is on the level of artistic and narrative brilliance of Speigelman's Maus - it takes a genre that you think that you are familiar with and it takes it to the places of tension, paradox, hurt, attachment, and tragedy of the human spirit. It is about memory and about responsibility. It is also about the fires that have forged the Israeli consciousness and heart...an amazing film, depicting the sensitivity and the psychic toll of those who serve their country in combat in the Israel Defense Forces. People on the left and right are trying to politicize this film, but for me it transcends politics, it is simply great art, great art from Israel, about Israel. May it win the Oscar it deserves!