History and Film and the Challenges of Memory: The Case of Ari Folman's Waltz With Bashir

Eric Engel Tuten

Introduction

     I will explore the topic of history and film by focusing on Ari Folman's animated film Waltz With Bashir.¹ I use Waltz as one of many films in my teaching because I personally find the film to be interesting and engaging and have found that students generally agree with me on this count. Furthermore, the film is a good medium both for exploring important issues in the fields of Middle East history and massacre/genocide studies and for addressing the issue of history and memory. Finally, the film is a great stepping stone to robust class discussion.

     In this article, I will provide information both about my teaching responsibilities at Slippery Rock University and a little about the students I teach. I will proceed with a short discussion of some of the challenges of memory, of Folman's film, the issues it raises, and of how I approach using it in my teaching. Related to the latter, I will offer some ideas on readings, possible assignments, and study questions to accompany the film. My hope is that readers will obtain some takeaway information they might find useful in the classroom. Perhaps it goes without saying, but I firmly believe that combining the visual impact of a film and film analysis with other related resources (articles, primary sources, documentaries) and with a robust class discussion goes a long way toward dispelling our concerns as teachers about the historical accuracy or worth of feature films. In this respect, I agree with Cheryl Bluestone's conclusion that "Film analysis, when linked with key themes and issues covered in class not only can increase students' engagement in the course but also can help develop connected learning experiences and critical thinking skills."²

Slippery Rock University

     I have taught in the History Department at Slippery Rock University (SRU) since 2006. Our department does not have a "world history" degree or focus, but all history majors are required to take two of the three introductory world history courses, of which I teach, or have taught, two: Rise of the Modern World and Contemporary World. Majors also take elective courses that cover "non-western" countries/regions of the world. For example, I teach courses on the Middle East (my area of specialty) and on "the history of the Jews." The latter course, with its broad, generic title, was already "on the books" when I arrived at SRU. I have thought more than once about changing the title and course description, but in terms of topics/issues and historical timeframe the broad title and description afford me the leeway to frame the course as I wish. It is often good to leave "flexible" alone. Finally, I teach a course on the modern state of Israel, which, although it may surprise some readers, is categorized as "non-western."³ Most of the courses I have listed are also electives in SRU's Liberal Studies program and, thus, are available to non-history majors.

     During my years at SRU, I have used a variety of films in many of my courses. The "non-western" electives requirement for the BA degree opened the way for me to create a history and film course with a comparative world focus titled "Mass Killing and Genocide in the Modern World." One of the case studies of mass killing we consider is the Sabra and Shatila massacre of 1982, which occurred seven years into Lebanon's debilitating civil war (1975–1990) and within the timeframe of Israel's Lebanon War (1982–1985).⁴ To accompany the readings, lecture material, and other resources related to the Sabra and Shatila massacre, I have my students watch Ari Folman's autobiographical, animated film Waltz With Bashir. The film is stunning in its simple animation and, along with providing a platform to discuss the complex historical and political contexts of the massacre, it also raises some provocative issues of the vagaries of memory and history.⁵

     Traditionally, SRU students largely have come from working-class families and many are first-generation college students. In fact, the incoming freshman class of 2012 was the first to include a little over half of the students coming from families in which at least one parent had a college degree. The vast majority of the students, therefore, have a limited knowledge of the Middle East in general, let alone of a specific country or of specific events in the region. Thus, I create a challenge for myself by showing a film that is not a straight-forward "grand narrative" of the Sabra and Shatila massacre. Such a retelling of the events of the massacre maybe would be easier for my students to follow, but I want my students to push beyond the mere story to confront the issue of memory. Folman's film offers an interesting, challenging, and informative way of approaching the topic.

The Challenges of Memory

". . . forgetfulness represents a force and a form of robust health."⁶

     In some of my courses, I take the opportunity to address some of the challenges of memory, whether as related to the use of oral history or in the context of a film like Folman's Waltz.⁷ Memory can play tricks on us. An example of a memory from my own childhood will help make my point. I was between 5 and 7 years old when my father was stationed at Charleston Air Force Base, Charleston, South Carolina. We lived in Mount Pleasant, a community across the Cooper River from Charleston. Throughout my life I have had a memory of being in a car with my mother and entering the Mount Pleasant development on the way to our home. As we drove homeward, I remember driving by a huge lake and under a thick shade of trees, so thick it was almost like night. For whatever reason, I have relived that memory countless times over succeeding years. Flash ahead some 20 years later, I finally had the opportunity to return to the Charleston area for my brother's wedding. As my father and I entered the development of Mount Pleasant and drove to see our former home, we drove by a body of water, but it was a rather small pond; we also drove by some trees, but they were not very large and certainly did not block all the light out. This experience destroyed my childhood memory. Why did I have that original memory? Did everything seem so large and mysterious to me because I was only a little boy? Was the thick shade of trees and darkness a memory of driving through the development at night? Or did I perhaps conflate that drive toward home with memories from driving in other areas of South Carolina where, during my visit, I saw much larger trees that did block out some of the light and I viewed the vast ocean as we drove along the coast. Because of the fragmented nature of memory, it is hard to know, of course, but the fact is the reality shattered the memory I had.

     Our memories of the past can change over time. What we remember and forget, consciously, subconsciously, or unconsciously, and how (the process) and why (the reason) we remember/forget is influenced by several factors. One factor is personal worldview, keeping in mind that a worldview often changes over time—even sometimes if only in nuanced ways—and that the shifting landscape of knowledge and belief will have an impact on our memory. A second factor affecting memory and forgetting is the intensity of our experiences and the attitudes we have toward them based on our own personal ethics and morals and/or on the ethical and moral judgments of the society in which we live. A third influence on memory is our personal system of beliefs vis-à-vis the cultural, political, and societal environment at the time we are thinking about (remembering) past events and people in our lives. In all of these cases, the processes of constructing, deconstructing, and reconstructing our memories anew can fool us.

     Because remembering can be psychologically and emotionally damaging, humans sometimes turn to forgetting as a defense mechanism. Nietzsche's statement that forgetting, for example a tragic or traumatic event or set of events, acts as a form of health may be true for some individuals in the short term, but ultimately we likely will be forced in one way or another to remember, and working through those memories with the help of a competent professional can lead to an even more robust health in the longer-term.

     For example, remembrance of the Holocaust, though painful, has been a positive therapeutic experience for many in the Jewish community who have been affected directly or indirectly by that tragedy and who have confronted and wrestled with the residual memories and pain. When David Jenkins asked Folman in an interview, whether suppressing memories can contribute to trauma, Folman answered in the affirmative and observed: "However, people survived the Holocaust. What have we gone through in comparison to them? It's not that bad to suppress. But once it's out, you've got to deal with it."⁸ Although Folman seems to minimize his own experiences in comparison to the horrors of the Holocaust, he concedes that the process of remembering and dealing with his past through his making of the film—excluding, apparently, the therapy part—has been good for him in the long run.⁹ Coping with the memories and pain associated with the Holocaust, or in this case with the Lebanon War, is a very personal experience that outsiders like me will never fully understand. But remembering has played an important role in helping many, in different contexts and in different ages, to be aware of how easily humans can devolve into barbaric, malignant behavior, and in some cases to take action to change things.

Remembering and Forgetting in Ari Folman's Waltz With Bashir

"Often, memories of key events—especially when traumatic—are the most elusive."¹⁰
"Ari Folman calls upon the power of drawings to create a vivid and intimate visual
experience that merges with the process of (story)telling. Waltz with Bashir finds
a subtle balance between the search for accuracy (history) and the expression
of its agents' subjectivity (the witnesses' memory)."¹¹

     The destruction of my childhood memory of Mount Pleasant was disappointing, but not devastating. Having never served in the military, I cannot imagine what it would be like to experience the harsh and damaging realities of war, and thereafter to deal with trying to understand and process the residual memories of those realities. That was Ari Folman's dilemma and I believe he succeeds in Waltz with Bashir in giving insight into processing his own war experience. Veterans who suffer from post-war trauma, and who choose to deal with it, will do so in their own ways; Folman used filmmaking to do so.

     As I mentioned earlier, Folman's film does not offer a straight-ahead retelling of the Sabra and Shatila massacre. In Raz Yosef's words, the film "does not aspire to reveal the true details of the war. Rather, it is concerned with memory and the very process of remembering, as well as with the ethical questions that they pose to both the film's protagonists and its viewers. These questions are reflected both in the film's narrative and in its unique aesthetics."¹² Folman takes viewers along on his journey and keeps us engaged through the use of stunning and innovative animation and the integration of the original, provocative musical score of Max Richter.¹³

     In the film, we encounter Folman as a man who has forgotten where he was and what he was doing during a block of time as an Israeli soldier during what some call a "war of choice"—the invasion of Lebanon in 1982.¹⁴ His forgetting was likely a defense mechanism to help him cope and to maintain "robust health," as Nietzsche puts it, in the many years succeeding the war. Not all war veterans who have experienced trauma in battle suppress memories, but Folman is one case, no doubt among many others, who did.¹⁵

     In 2003, after 22 years as either a full-time or reservist soldier in the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), Folman's superiors agreed to his request to be released from his monthly reservist obligation,¹⁶ but only with his promise to discuss his experiences with an army therapist.¹⁷ The film chronicles Folman slowly coming to an understanding of his half-forgotten involvement in the war, specifically as it relates to the Sabra and Shatila Massacre of September 15–18, 1982, in which, during the Israeli siege of West Beirut, members of the Lebanese Christian Phalangist militia massacred between 800 and 3500 Palestinian men, women, and children.¹⁸ The long-running Lebanese civil war (1975–1990) created the violent environment for massacre; the Israeli siege of West Beirut exacerbated the tensions; and the assassination on September 14, 1982, of the recently elected and very popular Lebanese President and senior member of the Phalange party, Bashir Gemayel, provided the trigger for revenge.¹⁹

     The film opens with a powerfully vivid and terrifying, recurring dream sequence that Boaz, one of Folman's former military comrades, recounts to Folman during a meeting in a Tel Aviv bar. Boaz informs Folman that he has been having this dream for more than two years. In the dream, a pack of twenty-six angry, vicious dogs pursue Boaz to his apartment building where they end up in the street below looking up at him, barking and snarling, as he peers out of his apartment window. Boaz tells Folman that the dream stems from the Lebanon War and he reveals to him its interpretation: Since Boaz's comrades knew he did not have it in him to take a human life, his main assignment was to "liquidate" the barking dogs that threatened to give him and his comrades away as they approached Lebanese villages in search of Palestinians. Boaz killed twenty-six dogs. "I remember every single one," he states, "Every face, every wound, the look in their eyes . . . 26 dogs."²⁰

	Figure 1: opening image from Waltz With Bashir. Accessed August 23, 2018, at http://www.lagosfilmsociety.org/2017/09/19/history-memory-and-identity-ari-folmans-waltz-with-bashir/.

     The opening sequence in the film, which portrays Boaz's recurring dream, is a good example of why I believe Folman's decision to use animation is an inspired choice. In this regard, I concur with Henrietta Ashworth's assessment that "Animation appears to be artifice and yet Waltz with Bashir . . . deals with the reality of memory, war and death, represented in ways that could only be achieved by animation."²¹ In an interview with Jonathan Freedland, Folman himself confirmed this assessment: "There was no other way to do it, to show memories, hallucinations, dreams. War is like a really bad acid trip, and this was the only way to show that."²²

     As his conversation with Boaz continues, Folman begins to reminisce about his own experiences in Lebanon. In doing so, he realizes he has gaps in his memories. Waltz documents his journey to fill the gaps through speaking to a handful of former comrades, to a therapist friend, to a TV reporter who covered the war, and to an expert on post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). His journey leads him ultimately to confront the horrible truth of the Sabra and Shatila Massacre and of his role in it.²³

     In an interview with Folman, Jonathan Freedland asked if the making of the film was therapeutic and Folman answered, "It was like scratching an old scar, an old wound, . . . The memories spurted out." Folman continues: "None of us spoke about this war . . . I've tried to open things up."²⁴ Folman's film did exactly that, drumming up scars of the self-reflection that Israeli citizens went through and the poignant public criticism leveled at the Israeli government resulting from the Lebanon War and from what happened at Sabra and Shatila. Criticism over the latter, led to the Kahan Commission of Inquiry (February 8, 1983), which called for the resignations of Prime Minister Menachem Begin and Defense Minister Ariel Sharon and harshly criticized other key officials for omissions in the line of duty.²⁵

     The Kahan Commission concluded that come nightfall the Phalangists requested that the IDF "provide illumination for the [Phalangist] force which was moving in, since its entry was taking place after dark." The IDF complied, providing mortar fire "intermittently throughout the night,"²⁶ thus facilitating the Phalangist militia's massacre of innocent Palestinians. As to whether Folman and other fellow soldiers on the ground were culpable at some level, Folman insisted that they "had no clue what was going on: we didn't know there was a massacre."²⁷ Folman was even more assertive in an interview response: "One thing for sure is that the Christian Phalangist militiamen were fully responsible for the massacre. The Israeli soldiers had nothing to do with it. As for the Israeli government, only they know the extent of their responsibility. Only they know if they were informed or not in advance about the oncoming violent revenge."²⁸ Regardless, the residual guilt for what happened at Sabra and Shatila seemingly weighed heavy  and ultimately fed Folman's desire to recover his suppressed memories in order to come to grips with his indirect involvement in the massacre.

     Nigel C. Hunt, in his book Memory, War and Trauma, explores the symbiosis of war's impact on the individual human psyche and the impact that society and culture have on how the individual processes the war experience.²⁹ Speaking more specifically of war trauma and the Israeli national memory, I believe that the intense public controversy and the private soul searching incited by the Lebanon War and the Sabra and Shatila Massacre no doubt influenced profoundly Folman's individual experience, both his forgetting and, ultimately, his need to remember and process that experience.

     In a broader context, Folman's Waltz with Bashir, in Raz Yosef's words, "marks the growing visibility and worldwide interest in current Israeli cinema." More important for Israel's self-reflection, and potential national collective "healing," Waltz joins other films dealing with the Yom Kippur War (1973) and Lebanon War (1982), with "relations between trauma and ethnicity," and with "the intersection of gay male sexuality, nationality, and loss."³⁰ Yosef further argues that

current Israeli cinema exposes and highlights a radical discontinuity between history and memory. Traumatic events from Israeli society's past are represented as the private memory of distinct social groups—soldiers, immigrants, women, queers—and not as collective memory, as a lived and practiced tradition that conditions Israeli society. These films are a kind of lieu de mémoire—realms of memory—that preserve and house repressed traumatic events that have been denied entry into the nation's historical narrative. . . . Contemporary Israeli cinema is thus a melancholic cinema that bears witness to the crises of historical national memory in Israel.³¹

     Folman's Waltz has a particular poignancy for Israeli national memory because it deals with acts of atrocity in which some Israeli government officials were complicit, some more fully and others at least indirectly. Jason Harsin highlights the significance of Folman's film in this regard: "Because of the cross-generational Holocaust trauma, an Israeli thinking about another denial of a different genocide [sic], to which Israelis were allegedly willing accomplices, the memory voyage is into a very precise kind of horror."³² I remember a teacher for a Holocaust seminar I attended at Portland State University in the early 1990s recounting the story of one Israeli mother who had decided that if her son, who was returning from fighting in Lebanon, knew about or had been involved in any way in the massacre at Sabra and Shatila she was not going to allow him to enter her home. In a day and age when we hear so many happy stories of U.S. citizens welcoming home their soldiers from war zones, most of these welcoming spouses, children, and siblings—lacking the difficult national memories of this Israeli mother—probably would not understand this Israeli woman's reaction.

     I end this section with a question whose answer is outside the purview of my article, but that is worthy of more exploration and analysis: In what ways, if at all, have contemporary Israeli films like Folman's Waltz sparked discussion within Israel that might possibly contribute to a national "healing process" by bringing into the open the "repressed traumatic events" that, in Yosef's words "have been denied entry into [Israel's  historical narrative"?

Waltzing with the Students

     "Feature films—alongside archive film and eyewitness testimony on film—provide access points to a wide range of history topics for all students. Well-chosen and contextualised film is a fantastically inclusive stimulus for discussion, debate and enquiry, supporting students through a familiar medium to tackle less-familiar and sometimes more challenging sources."³³

     Some—or perhaps most—history teachers may be leery of using feature-length films because of concerns about historical inaccuracies. The concern is real. For this reason, along with having students watch a feature film, it is a best practice also to require them to read at least one solid article that deals with the historical context and/or directly with the topic of the film, to view a credible documentary, with eye-witness accounts if available, and to read film-related primary sources. In fact, we might use the film as a contemporary "source," to accompany the other sources, which we can help the students to interpret and understand within the context of the time period in which it was made. As Samantha Clarkson suggests, "Encourage caution, interrogation and critique of film, as you would with any other source. All films are subjective and flawed."³⁴

     To reiterate my thesis in the introduction to this article: I believe that combining the visual impact of film with additional, related resources and holding an effective class discussion to tie everything together will belay possible concerns teachers may have about the historical accuracy of films. This is as true for Folman's film as for other films I use or have used in my teaching. By way of summary, I have focused on Folman's film in this article for four main reasons:

1. I like it and find it engaging


2. I know from teaching experience that students find it engaging


3. I find it useful in exploring important historical issues and the issue of memory


4. It lends itself to robust class discussion.

Not all of my students react favorably to the film, of course, but dissent and opposing views are vital for effective class discussion and for fostering critical thinking.

I have gathered materials related  to Waltz With Bashir and I include them below, along with some suggestions for writing assignments and a short-list of analytical questions about Waltz with the hope that teachers will find them useful.

Resources to Accompany Waltz with Bashir

Readings

For a longer, though certainly not exhaustive, list, and for both readings listed in the paragraphs immediately below, see Suggestions for Further Reading.

Let me offer a few words by way of suggestion. Teachers might require at least one of the primary source readings and one of the other readings below to accompany Folman's film, although I recommend all of them if the level of students you are teaching warrants more thorough study.

If teachers use Waltz as one of many films in a course (i.e., for a small segment of a course), I recommend they use Giulia Miller's Studying "Waltz with Bashir" as a reference work to prepare their own lectures/class presentations. On the other hand, those teachers who use the film for a larger segment of their course might consider assigning the whole (little) book as reading. Also, depending on the course content, teachers might consider assigning the graphic novel version of Waltz, Folman and Polonsky, Waltz with Bashir: A Lebanon War Story, along with having students watch the film.

Primary Sources

"The Kahan Commission of Inquiry (February 8, 1983)." Jewish Virtual Library. August 13, 2018.
https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/the-kahan-commission-of-inquiry.
Annotation: This site includes the entire commission report; I suggest having students read excerpts.

The New York Times Archives. "Excerpts from Begin Speech at National Defense College." 1982. August 22, 2018.
https://www.nytimes.com/1982/08/21/world/excerpts-from-begin-speech-at-national-defense-college.html

Siegel, Ellen. "Sabra and Shatila 33 Years Later—A Personal Account." Special Report, Washington Report on Middle East Affairs (November/December 2015), 17–18, 21. August 14, 2018. https://www.wrmea.org/015-november-december/sabra-and-shatila-33-years-later%E2%80%94-a-personal-account.html.

Shahid, Leila. "The Sabra and Shatila Massacres: Eye-Witness Reports." With an Introduction by Linda Butler. Journal of Palestine Studies XXXII, no. 1 (Autumn 2002), pages 36–58. Accessed August 13, 2018.
https://www.wrmea.org/015-november-december/sabra-and-shatila-33-years-later%E2%80%94-a-personal-account.html.

Articles

Ashworth, Henrietta. Memory, Trauma and the Image in Waltz with Bashir (Ari Folman, 2008) and United 93 (Paul Greengrass, 2006)." April 18, 2015. https://www.academia.edu/3474204/Memory_Trauma_and_the_Image_in_Waltz_with_Bashir_Ari_Folman_2008_and_United_93_Paul_Greengrass_2006_.

Fisk, Robert, "The Forgotten Massacre." August 15, 2018.
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/the-forgotten-massacre-8139930.html.

Launchbury, Claire. "Animating Memory: Ari Folman's Waltz with Bashir." April 18, 2015.
https://www.academia.edu/6612964/Animating_Memory_Ari_Folmans_Waltz_with_Bashir.

Levy, Gideon. "'Antiwar' Film Waltz With Bashir Is Nothing but Charade." Haaretz. Last updated on February 19, 2009. https://www.haaretz.com/1.5077872.             

Yosef, Raz.  "War Fantasies: Memory, Trauma and Ethics in Ari Folman's Waltz With Bashir."
Journal of Modern Jewish Studies Vol 9, Issue 3 (2010), 311–326. Accessed (Abstract only) online April 18, 2015, at http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/14725886.2010.518444#.VTJ6tPnF-So.

Miscellaneous

Sony Picture Classics. "Waltz with Bashir: An Ari Folman Film." Press Kit. August 15, 2018.
http://www.sonyclassics.com/waltzwithbashir/pdf/waltzwithbashir_presskit.pdf.

Documentaries

Documentaries are a little hard to come by, but here are some possibilities:

Before the Massacre (Beirut 1982), YouTube Video, 44:11, posted by "Christopher Sykes,"
April 28, 2016, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9437Yn80NTw.

Israel vs. the PLO: The Invasion of Lebanon, YouTube Video, 54:09, posted by "YorkVid,"
September 11, 2015, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L99ygQT_zq8.

The Massacre, YouTube Video, 49:30, posted by "Eman Ezzeddine," September 17, 2012,  in
Arabic with English subtitles, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3gKfpsbQ7DM.

Borgmann, Monika, and Hermann Theissen, Massaker (Massacre). Documentary. Directed by
Monika Borgmann and Lokman Slim. France: Zootrope Films, 2006. Description accessed August 23, 2018, at https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0382175/.
(Difficult to acquire. Consists of interviews with six perpetrators of the Sabra and Shatila massacre, faces not identified; 98 minutes.)

Modern Warfare: The Lebanon War. Documentary, 2003. International Television News.

Lebanon 1982—Parts 1–3, YouTube Videos, 14:00/14:00/3:49, posted by "Lumaix," August 6, 2010 (Part 1) and "Lucas Caneira Costa," February 2, 2014 (Parts 2 and 3), https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nnhf_o8Z-5Q, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kJ1RuBV5PjM, and https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_WBpJryacHw, respectively.

Possible Writing Assignments

Writing assignments (to force students out of the "comfort zone" of merely watching a movie and to get them to negotiate and think more deeply about some aspect of the film):

1.     Playing with memory or memory playing with us?

Ask students to choose a family member (parent, sibling, cousin, etc.) with whom they have a common memory (of an event or incident). Have each of them write down separately as much as he/she remembers about the memory, then have them share their written memories to compare similarities and differences. Have them discuss why their accounts may vary (circumstances of the time, their age difference, etc.). Students will then write a 2–3-page paper sharing the experience, which might include presenting the two accounts of the memory and any insights gained from the discussion.

a.     This assignment might work best for high school-aged students (NOTE: I realize it is questionable about whether a high school would allow a film with adult content.)

b.     Obviously, this assignment may not work for every student—some may not have a vivid/semi-vivid memory with which to work

c.     Instruct the students to stay away from focusing on a traumatic experience that may cause stress

2.     Website evaluation (about 3–5 pages, depending on how in depth you want students to go):

a.     Have students access and evaluate a website dealing with either the Lebanon War broadly, the Sabra and Shatila Massacre more specifically, or with memory and its challenges

i.     You can either make up your own website evaluation questions, find a good guide online, or contact me and I will send you the assignment criteria I use

3.     Film analysis (about 5 pages):

a.     Have students write a film analysis based on tailored criteria and questions you pose or on criteria and questions you find online or in a book.

b.     Here are some websites that contain good information and possible approaches:

i.     How to Analyze a Movie: https://www.wikihow.com/Analyze-a-Movie

ii.     How to Analyze a Movie: A Step-by-Step Guide: http://sdfilmfest.com/how-to-analyze-a-movie-step-by-step-guide-to-reviewing-films-from-a-screeners-point-of-view/

iii.     Film Analysis: https://writingcenter.unc.edu/film-analysis/

iv.     How to Analyze a Film: https://courses.lumenlearning.com/introliterature/chapter/how-to-analyze-a-film/

Study Questions for Folman's Waltz With Bashir

1. How does this film portray the Palestinians?


2. What impression does the film give of the Israel Defense Force (IDF)?


3. What impression does the film give of the Israel government?


4. Explain why you thought Folman's choice of animation was or was not effective.


5. Comment on the choice of music used in the film. How did it contribute to the overall feel of the film?


6. Based on your understanding of the film, what role did Folman play in the Sabra and Shatila Massacre?


7. Did you think the ending of the film was effective? Explain.


8. Do you think the film was even-handed or biased in dealing with the events portrayed? Present specific examples to back your position.

Eric Engel Tuten is Assistant Professor of Middle East, Jewish, and World history at Slippery Rock University (SRU) in western PA. His research focuses on the land issue in the Arab-Israeli-Palestinian (AIP) conflict and he is currently writing a book proposal for a world history series that will compare meanings and uses of land in four areas of the world, including Palestine/Israel.

Suggestions for Further Reading

Primary Sources

Azzam, Zeina. "Ellen Siegel: Why have the killers of Sabra and Shatila escaped justice?" International Middle East Media Center. September 17, 2015.
http://imemc.org/article/73040/.

Enders, David. "Shatila Massacre: The American Witness Who Returns to Beirut Every Year to Remember." The National. Last updated September 24, 2017. https://www.thenational.ae/world/mena/shatila-massacre-the-american-witness-who-returns-to-beirut-every-year-to-remember-1.661187.

Friedman, Thomas L. From Beirut to Lebanon. With a new Preface and Afterward (2012). New York: Picador—Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1995.

"The Kahan Commission of Inquiry (February 8, 1983)." Jewish Virtual Library. August 13, 2018. https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/the-kahan-commission-of-inquiry.

Lozowick, Yaacov. "Secrets from Israel's Archives." Tablet Magazine. Accessed August 13, 2018.
http://www.tabletmag.com/jewish-news-and-politics/124809/secrets-from-israels-archives.

_________"Israel's First Response to Sabra & Shatila: Furious Rejection." Accessed August 13, 2018.
http://israelsdocuments.blogspot.co.il/2013/02/israels-first-response-to-sabra-shatila.html.

The New York Times Archives. "Excerpts from Begin Speech at National Defense College." 1982. August 22, 2018. https://www.nytimes.com/1982/08/21/world/excerpts-from-begin-speech-at-national-defense-college.html

Samaha, Nour. "Survivors Recount Sabra-Shatila Massacre." Al Jazeera. September 16, 2012. https://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/features/2012/09/2012915163152213255.html.

Siegel, Ellen. "Sabra and Shatila 33 Years Later—A Personal Account." Special Report, Washington Report on Middle East Affairs (November/December 2015), 17–18, 21. August 14, 2018. https://www.wrmea.org/015-november-december/sabra-and-shatila-33-years-later%E2%80%94-a-personal-account.html.

Shahid, Leila. "The Sabra and Shatila Massacres: Eye-Witness Reports." With an Introduction by Linda Butler. Journal of Palestine Studies XXXII, no. 1 (Autumn 2002), pages 36–58.

Study Guide

Miller, Giulia. Studying Waltz with Bashir. Leighton Buzzard: Auteur Publishing, 2017.

Books

Folman, Ari, and David Polonsky. Waltz with Bashir: A Lebanon War Story. New York: Metropolitan Books, 2009.

Foster, Jonathan K. Memory: A Very Short Introduction. Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press, 2009.

Al-Hout, Bayan Nuwayhed. Sabra and Shatila: September 1982. London: Pluto Press, 2004.

Hunt, Nigel C. Memory, War and Trauma. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2010.

Nietzsche, Friedrich. The Genealogy of Morals. Translated by Horace B. Samuel, M.A. New York: Boni and Liveright Publishers, 1887. Accessed June, 16, 2018. https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/The_Genealogy_of_Morals/Second_Essay.

O'Shea, Michael. The Brain: A Very Short Introduction. Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press, 2005.

Smooha, Sammy. "Is Israel Western?" In Comparing Modernities: Pluralism versus Homogeneity: Essays in Homage to Shmuel N. Eisenstadt, eds. Eliezer Ben-Rafael and Yitzhak Sternberg, 413–442. Leiden and Boson: Brill Academic Publishers, 2005.

Tal, David, ed. Israeli Identity: Between Orient and Occident. Abingdom and New York: Routledge, 2013.

Yosef, Raz. The Politics of Loss and Trauma in Contemporary Israeli Cinema. New York: Routledge, 2011.

Articles

Agence France-Presse. "Lebanese President Gemayel's Killer Convicted, 35 Years Later." The Times of Israel (October 27, 2017). https://www.timesofisrael.com/lebanese-president-gemayels-killer-convicted-35-years-later/.

Ashworth, Henrietta. Memory, Trauma and the Image in Waltz with Bashir (Ari Folman, 2008) and United 93 (Paul Greengrass, 2006)." April 18, 2015. https://www.academia.edu/3474204/Memory_Trauma_and_the_Image_in_Waltz_with_Bashir_Ari_Folman_2008_and_United_93_Paul_Greengrass_2006_.

Atkinson, Paul, and Simon Cooper. "Untimely Animations: Waltz with Bashir and the Incorporation of Historical Difference." Accessed online April 18, 2015, at http://www.screeningthepast.com/2012/08/untimely-animations-waltz-with-bashir-and-the-incorporation-of-historical-difference/.

Bluestone, Cheryl. "Feature Films as a Teaching Tool." College Teaching 48, no.4 (Fall 2000), 141–146.

Dan, Dare. "History, Memory, and Identity-Ari Folman's Waltz with Bashir." Lagos Film Review. September 19, 2017. http://www.lagosfilmsociety.org/2017/09/19/history-memory-and-identity-ari-folmans-waltz-with-bashir/.

Fisk, Robert, "The Forgotten Massacre." August 15, 2018. https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/the-forgotten-massacre-8139930.html.

Freedland, Jonathan. "Lest We Forget." The Guardian. Last modified October 25, 2008. https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.theguardian.com/film/2008/oct/25/waltz-with-bashir-ari-folman.

Gwen. "The postmodern dilemma: Waltz with Bashir (Ari Folman, 2008)." Accessed online April 18, 2015, at https://lavventuradigwen.com/2011/12/14/waltz-with-bashir/.

Hankir, Ahmed. and  Mark Agius. "An Exploration of How Film Portrays Psychopathology: The Animated Documentary Film Waltz with Bashir, the Depiction of PTSD and Cultural Perceptions." Psychiatria Danubina. 2012 (September 2012, 24 Suppl 1:S70-6). Abstract accessed August 11, 2018, at https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22945192.

Harsin, Jayson. "The Responsible Dream: On Ari Folman's Waltz with Bashir" (January 31, 2009). Accessed April 18, 2015. http://brightlightsfilm.com/the-responsible-dream-on-ari-folmans-waltz-with-bashir/#.VTOnQvnF-So.

Jenkins, David. "Director Ari Folman on 'Waltz with Bashir'." Time Out. Accessed August 13, 2018.
https://www.timeout.com/london/film/director-ari-folman-on-waltz-with-bashir-1.

Launchbury, Claire. "Animating Memory: Ari Folman's Waltz with Bashir." April 18, 2015. https://www.academia.edu/6612964/Animating_Memory_Ari_Folmans_Waltz_with_Bashir.

Levene, Mark, and Penny Roberts, eds., The Massacre in History. Book 1 in series War and Genocide (New York and Oxford: Berghahn, 1999).

Levy, Gideon. "'Antiwar' Film Waltz With Bashir Is Nothing but Charade." Haaretz. Last updated on February 19, 2009. https://www.haaretz.com/1.5077872.

Yosef, Raz.  "Traces of War: Memory, Trauma, and the Archive in Joseph Cedar's Beaufort." Cinema Journal 50, Number 2 (Winter 2011), 61–83. Abstract accessed April 18, 2015. http://muse.jhu.edu/journals/cj/summary/v050/50.2.yosef.html.

________ "War Fantasies: Memory, Trauma and Ethics in Ari Folman's Waltz With Bashir."

Journal of Modern Jewish Studies Vol 9, Issue 3 (2010), 311–326. April 18, 2015 (Abstract only).
http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/14725886.2010.518444#.VTJ6tPnF-So.

Miscellaneous

Sony Picture Classics. "Waltz with Bashir: An Ari Folman Film." Press Kit. August 15, 2018. http://www.sonyclassics.com/waltzwithbashir/pdf/waltzwithbashir_presskit.pdf.

¹Although I like Folman's Waltz with Bashir and I find it engaging as a teaching tool, the film is not without its critics—see, for example, Gideon Levy, "'Antiwar' Film Waltz With Bashir Is Nothing but Charade" Haaretz, last updated on February 19, 2009, https://www.haaretz.com/1.5077872. An important note: This film is rated R for language, sexuality, and violence, so it may not be appropriate for all students.

²Cheryl Bluestone, "Feature Films as a Teaching Tool," College Teaching, vol.48, no.4 (Fall, 2000), 46.

³Specialists on the subject have debated whether Israel is a "western" or an "eastern" country. For example, see Sammy Smooha, "Is Israel Western?" in Comparing Modernities: Pluralism versus Homogeneity: Essays in Homage to Shmuel N. Eisenstadt, eds. Eliezer Ben-Rafael and Yitzhak Sternberg (Leiden and Boson: Brill Academic Publishers, 2005), 413–442. For a more comprehensive study of the issues involved, see David Tal, ed., Israeli Identity: Between Orient and Occident (Abingdom and New York: Routledge, 2013).

⁴Sometimes called Israel's First Lebanon War to distinguish it from the 2006 war on southern Lebanon—or the 34-Day War.

⁵Another film dealing with memory and history that I have used effectively in my genocide course is Adam Egoyan's film Ararat about Armenian genocide (1915–1916). As a side note, another fascinating animated documentary that deals with mass killing is Tower (2016), which is about the 1966 sniper who held up for over 90 minutes in a clock tower on the University of Texas, Austin, campus—the first mass school shooting in the US. The film combines archival footage and eyewitness accounts with rotoscopic animation (tracing over film footage frame by frame) to tell the engaging and moving story of that fateful August day.

⁶Friedrich Nietzsche, The Genealogy of Morals, translated by Horace B. Samuel, M.A. (New York: Boni and Liveright Publishers, 1887), 41 (italics in original), accessed June, 16, 2018, at https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/The_Genealogy_of_Morals/Second_Essay.

⁷We can approach the complex topic of memory from a variety of directions—e.g., evolutionary psychology, cognitive science. For the purposes of this paper and the non-specialist, however, as good a place to start as any is with two books from Oxford University Press' Very Short Introduction series: Jonathan K. Foster, Memory: A Very Short Introduction (Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press, 2009) and Michael O'Shea, The Brain: A Very Short Introduction (Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press, 2005).

⁸David Jenkins, "Director Ari Folman on 'Waltz with Bashir'," Time Out, accessed August 13, 2018, at https://www.timeout.com/london/film/director-ari-folman-on-waltz-with-bashir-1.

⁹See Folman's comments in the interview included in Sony Picture Classics, "Waltz with Bashir: An Ari Folman Film," Press Kit, August 15, 2018, http://www.sonyclassics.com/waltzwithbashir/pdf/waltzwithbashir_presskit.pdf.

¹⁰Lee Gutkind, "The Vagaries of Memory," accessed July 30, 2018, at https://www.creativenonfiction.org/excerpt/80/3223.

¹¹Gwen, "The postmodern dilemma: Waltz with Bashir (Ari Folman, 2008)," April 18, 2015, https://lavventuradigwen.com/2011/12/14/waltz-with-bashir/.

¹²Raz Yosef, "War Fantasies: Memory, Trauma and Ethics in Ari Folman's Waltz With Bashir," Journal of Modern Jewish Studies Vol 9, Issue 3 (2010), 311–326; accessed (Abstract only) online April 18, 2015, at http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/14725886.2010.518444#.VTJ6tPnF-So.

¹³Listen, for example, to the hauntingly beautiful "The Ocean," accessed August 8, 2018, at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xP_PK88J3KM

¹⁴In "Excerpts from a Speech at National Defense College," The New York Times archives, 1982, https://www.nytimes.com/1982/08/21/world/excerpts-from-begin-speech-at-national-defense-college.html, Prime Minister Menachem Begin himself admitted (only a couple of months after Israel invaded Lebanon) that Operation Peace for Galilee, the name given to the invasion, was "not a military operation resulting from the lack of an alternative."

¹⁵The topic of war trauma is outside both the purview of this article and my own scholarly expertise. Those interested in pursuing the general topic might start with the scholarship of Nigel C. Hunt (see Books under Further Reading section); to explore war trauma and Folman's Waltz, see Raz Yosef (Books and Articles under Further Reading); for a discussion of how Waltz portrays psychopathology, see Hankir and Agius (Articles under Further Reading).

¹⁶All Israeli citizens (Jewish, Druze, or Circassian, but not Arab) over the age of 18 are obligated to serve in the military, with men typically serving for three years and women for a little under two years. On average, 80 percent of those conscripted end up enlisting and carrying out their obligation. Exemptions are made for various reasons, including for married women and women with children and for religious, physical, and psychological reasons. For some of the information above and for an interesting perspective, see Casey Cromwell, "What You Should Know About Israel's Mandatory Military Service for Men and Women," Entity (March 24, 2017), https://www.entitymag.com/what-know-israel-mandatory-military-service-men-and-women/.

¹⁷Jonathan Freedland, "Lest We Forget," The Guardian, last modified October 25, 2008, https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.theguardian.com/film/2008/oct/25/waltz-with-bashir-ari-folman.

¹⁸Zeina Azzam. "Ellen Siegel: Why have the killers of Sabra and Shatila escaped justice?" International Middle

East Media Center, September 17, 2015, http://imemc.org/article/73040/. Several parties have disputed the number killed. For more on this dispute, see Leila Shahid, "The Sabra and Shatila Massacres: Eye-Witness Reports," with an Introduction by Linda Butler, Journal of Palestine Studies XXXII, no. 1 (Autumn 2002), 44.

¹⁹Agence France-Presse, "Lebanese President Gemayel's Killer Convicted, 35 Years Later," The Times of Israel,

October 27, 2017, https://www.timesofisrael.com/lebanese-president-gemayels-killer-convicted-35-years-later/.

²⁰English translation from the Hebrew taken from the film subtitles.

²¹Henrietta Ashworth, "Memory, Trauma and the Image in Waltz with Bashir (Ari Folman, 2008) and United 93

(Paul Greengrass, 2006)," accessed April 18, 2015, at https://www.academia.edu/3474204/Memory_Trauma_and_the_Image_in_Waltz_with_Bashir_Ari_Folman_2008_and_United_93_Paul_Greengrass_2006_ (italics mine).

²²Freedland, "Lest We Forget."

²³Adapted from the film summary on the back of the Sony Pictures Classics DVD (in my possession).

²⁴Freedland, "Lest We Forget."

²⁵"The Kahan Commission of Inquiry (February 8, 1983)," Jewish Virtual Library, accessed August 13, 2018, https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/the-kahan-commission-of-inquiry.

²⁶Ibid.

²⁷Freedland, "Lest We Forget."

²⁸Interview included in Sony Picture Classics, "Waltz with Bashir."

²⁹Nigel C. Hunt, Memory, War and Trauma (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2010).

³⁰Yosef, The Politics of Loss and Trauma in Contemporary Israeli Cinema (New York: Routledge, 2011), 5–6.

³¹Ibid.

³²Jayson Harsin, "The Responsible Dream: On Ari Folman's Waltz with Bashir" Bright Lights Film Journal, 30 Nov. 2014, http://brightlightsfilm.com/the-responsible-dream-on-ari-folmans-waltz-with-bashir/.

³³Samantha Clarkson, "History in Action—Using Film to Support History Teaching," May 31, 2018, https://www.intofilm.org/news-and-views/articles/history-in-action.

³⁴Ibid.