It was difficult to socialize at Dossier’s holiday party last night having just seen an advanced screening of Ari Folman’s poignant and harrowing animated feature Waltz with Bashir (2008). Written and directed by Folman, the narrative is organized around his attempt to remember the details of his involvement in the Sabra and Shatila massacre in West Beirut during the First Lebanon War of 1982.

To jog his memory, Folman interviews various childhood friends and fellow soldiers who also participated in the invasion, and their animated memories create a series of vignettes illustrating the experiences of very young men out of their depths, thrown into situations where they are shot at and forced to shoot back.

Max Richter’s scored soundtrack embellishes the dreamy melancholy of many of the memories and the beauty of the animation and combines nicely with period pieces like OMD’s “Enola Gay” and PiL’s “This is Not a Love Song.” Each scene brings the Israeli Defense Force closer to Beirut and Folman closer to his repressed memory of the massacre.

Folman’s uncomfortable discovery of his role in facilitating the massacre resonates beyond the First Lebanon War and the politics of this volatile region. Waltz with Bashir is a powerful reflection on the limits and exigencies of personal, ethical responsibility and the ways in which past horrors can weigh upon the present, especially when they are forgotten.