Hidden Gem: Waltz with Bashir

While Waltz with Bashir was critically hailed upon it's release last year, and was Oscar nominated, but it failed to received the box office success that this truly great movie deserved so it's this week's Hidden Gem.

Waltz with Bashir followed hot on the heels of Persepolis by telling the story of the war in Lebanon in the early eighties in animation.

In 1982, Folman was a soldier during Israel's first invasion of Lebanon. This was a painful moment in history, when the newly elected president of Lebanon, Bashir Gemayel, was killed in an explosion.

Furious, his party, the Christian Phalangists, retaliated by storming into the Sabra and Shatila refugee camps and massacring thousands of innocent victims.

Over 20 years later, Folman is disturbed to realize that he has no memory of this incident even though he was there at the time. In order to remember, he tracks down several of his friends and soldiers who were there with him to find out what really happened.

Waltz with Bashir is truly a beautiful and moving movie as Folman delves deep into his troubled past as he desperately tries to remember the events that have eluded him for two decades.

The animation for this film took four years to complete, and it was a project that some doubted would ever be able to be completed, but filmmaker Ari Folman has proven all of these doubters wrong and has produced a movie that is a true landmark in animation.

This is an interesting way to take a look at the past and while Waltz with Bashir is a history lesson it's not all in your face as Folman mixes fact with dream sequences.

Without a doubt this is the most original movie that I have had the pleasure of seeing in a long time and the events and the imagery will stay with you long after the credits have rolled, the final images were animation becomes reality are incredibly powerful.

You have to admire Folman's openness to allow this movie to document a very personal quest to uncover the truth and face the psychological trauma that he suffered during this time.

Waltz with Bashir is one of the best war movies that has ever been committed to film, and it backs an even greater punch given the current unrest in the Middle East.

This is a unique way of looking at the horrors of war and the long lasting damage it has to the solider who were just 'following orders'.

It's hard to believe that war documentary and animation would fit together but the pair go are beautiful bedfellows and this movie is one of the most extraordinary animation movies that you are likely to see.

The movie was nominated for Best Foreign Language Film at this year's Oscar but lost out to Departures from Japan.

For any fan of film, and try and overlook the subtitles, Waltz with Bashir is an absolutely must see and was one of the best movies of 2008.

FemaleFirst Helen Earnshaw