Many Israelis will be up at 3 a.m. tonight to see if their country will walk away with its first Academy Award.
"Waltz With Bashir," Ari Folman's gripping animated Lebanon War film is widely favored to win the Oscar for Best Foreign Film at tonight's Academy Awards.
(It has now been turned into a graphic novel...)
"Waltz With Bashir" won a Golden Globe last month, which is often a good predictor of what will happen at the Oscars.
But the Los Angeles Times notes that no animated film, no documentary and no Israeli film have ever won this category, so an Oscar is by-no-means assured.
"Waltz With Bashir" has been widely praised for its unique, captivating and insightful examination of one Israeli veteran's search for answers about his country's responsibility for the long war in Lebanon and the 1982 massacre in the Sabra and Shatila refugee camps.
Earlier this month, artists in Lebanon defied the country's ban on Israeli products to show "Waltz With Bashir" in a small screening.
On the eve of this potentially historic day for Israeli film-making, one Haaretz columnist lashed out with some of the most caustic criticism to-date in Israel of "Waltz With Bashir."
"The film is infuriating, disturbing, outrageous and deceptive," writes Gideon Levy, one of Israel's most liberal columnists. "It deserves an Oscar for the illustrations and animation - but a badge of shame for its message."
"This is not an antiwar film, nor even a critical work about Israel as militarist and occupier," he writes. "It is an act of fraud and deceit, intended to allow us to pat ourselves on the back, to tell us and the world how lovely we are."
Levy criticized director Ari Folman for not taking a stand against Israel's most-recent Gaza military operation when he accepted the Golden Globe last month. And he question's Folman's overall message.
"Waltz With Bashir" is not the definitive Lebanon War film. It is one soldier's experience. It has already become an important part of Israel's narrative and added to the country's ongoing debate about its place in the Middle East.
As the Anglo-Lebanese blogger Doshka wrote after seeing the film:
"You leave the theater somehow forgiving of Israel's limited role in the massacre because they talk about it, examine it, acknowledge to their culpability as it arises. Which is true, if we are just talking about Sabra and Shatila, and Ari. But Ari, this is about you, but it's also not just about you... Despite the criticisms I have, this is an utterly worthwhile film. As art, its beautiful. As a story, it's one of the important stories, belonging to a narrative of this region's mishmash of memory. It's worthwhile too, for its use of irony, music and surreal montages. It's worthwhile for its self-reflective criticism: a shot of a tank in Sidon seen from the outside crushing cars and bashing holes into homes _ and seen from within the tank as well."
Tonight we'll find out what the Academy has to say.
The fact that “Waltz” is only one soldier's experience doesn't absolve it's maker from political responsibility, and in that sense, the film is a partial failure (though a beautiful one). In my opinion, most of the time it remains, like many other works coming from the Israeli Left, a sort of a therapeutic project. But at the current moment, while the occupation and the wars go on, the last thing Israelis need is this kind of therapy.
I also think “Waltz” is going to win the Oscar.
Posted by: noam | February 22, 2009 at 12:17 PM
I know "guilt" and "self examination" is a Jewish thing.
But they really need to get over doing what it takes to survive in the harsh Middle East.
Again perhaps it is against their psyche to do otherwise. Perhaps they think others will give them credit for being so critical of themselves.
Not true. The "self hating Jew" has become so cliche. It is just annoying.
So, stop winning and say, yeah we're bad. Mess with us and you'll get yours!
Posted by: Kevin | February 23, 2009 at 09:09 PM
I agree with Gideon Levy.... it is a "we shoot and we cry" piece of nonsense, where they try to justify their useless brutality.
I am sick of movies about combatants. I would like to see movies about the civilians and what happens to them.
I figure if someone decides to pick up a weapon and go hunt down and kill their fellow human beings, they have lost ALL claim to any sympathy or respect.
Posted by: Susan - NC | February 27, 2009 at 01:16 AM