Film: Waltz with Bashir...

So I trundled off the to Cube cinema last night with a bunch of people who I'd persuaded to come with me. I'd heard a lot about Waltz with Bashir - it's just won the Golden Globe for best international film, it's featured highly on lists of best films of 2008, and generally generated a lot of positive buzz. I'd also heard the words harrowing, powerful, upsetting and moving associated with it, so I knew I wasn't there for a romantic comedy...

So the descriptive bit. Waltz with Bashir is unusual in that it's an animated documentary... At the start of the film, in the present time, a man who fought in the 1982 Lebanon war meets up with an old friend who tells him about a recurring nightmare he's been troubled with related to his war experiences. The story itself is told as a series of conversations and flashbacks. I'm not going to say anything more about what happens during the film, as part of the power of this film is the journey it takes you on. The visual style is captivating, and is used to perfection by the film maker to achieve maximum impact from the story he is telling.

I honestly can't remember the last time a film affected me this much. As the credits rolled, there was deathly silence in the cinema. No words seemed appropriate for what we'd just witnessed. Several minutes passed before I spoke, which to anyone who knows me is an unusual thing. All those words I'd heard used were completely appropriate to what I'd just witnessed and yet seemed insufficient to describe what I was feeling. I still struggle to find words to vocalise it.

This is not an easy film to watch, but an important one. As a film, it's extraordinary and unique. As a life experience, it's a provocative and affecting look back at a conflict that is widely unheard of.