The Israeli movie about the Israeli-Lebanese war of 1982 follows Ari Folman, the film's star and director, who has blocked out his military service.,”Usually the words "war documentary" and "animation" do not go together. However, the Academy Award-nominated "Waltz With Bashir" is not in any way a typical film.

The Israeli movie about the Israeli-Lebanese war of 1982 follows Ari Folman, the film's star and director, who has blocked out his military service. After the war, Folman cuts off ties with the men he served with. But after he starts to get reoccurring nightmares about the Sabra and Shatila massacre in Beruit, he seeks peers to figure out what really happened in the war.

From the very beginning, audiences will be absolutely captivated by the movie. The opening sequence showing rabid dogs running through the streets and even though it is animation, you can feel the emotions as if you were looking at a live-action film.

Folman and art director David Polonsky has said in interviews that they were influenced by comic book artist Joe Sacco, painter Otto Dix, and the novels "Catch-22," "The Adventures of Wesley Jackson" and "Slaughterhouse-Five." The animation technique is a combination of old fashion ink and paint with Flash software that makes the film look like a graphic novel. The colors and movements of the entire story create an almost dream-like reality, appropriate as many of the scenes are just recreations of dreams and memories of these former soldiers.

"Waltz With Bashir," which premiered at the Cannes Film Festival last year, has won the Golden Globe for Best Foreign Language Film. It is currently the critics' choice for becoming the Academy Award-winner for the same category. However, not everyone feels the same way about the film.

Because the documentary follows Israeli soldiers as they recollect their memories from the Israeli-Lebanese War, it can be obvious that the entire story is not being told. According to the Los Angeles Times, the movie has been banned in Lebanon, as is every Israeli-made movie (Lebanese law forbids trade with Israel), but bootleg copies have been distributed.

Some people accuse the movie of having a pro-Israeli bias; it must be remembered that this is a documentary that is only meant to show one man's struggle as he attempts to remember his role in a deadly war.

It is easy for audiences to get caught up in the beauty of the animation and forget that the movie is a documentary. But the filmmakers make sure you leave the theaters impacted by the reality of the situation. The last few minutes of the film switch from animation to live-action footage from the actual Sabra-Shatila massacre. The images of dead bodies lying in the streets and women crying over the deaths of their friends and family are difficult to shake.

The film's imagery is breathtakingly beautiful and the story itself will leave an impression that will be hard to forget.

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