Waltz With Bashir Movie

During the four years it took to make the Israeli-animated documentary "Waltz With Bashir," writer-director-producer Ari Folman never had time to consider whether his uniquely stylized film would play outside his country. "When we completed the film, we were totally clueless about how far it would go," admits Folman. "We were -- especially me -- pretty much obsessed with just completing it." Produced on a lean budget of $1.

You can't see "Waltz With Bashir" legally in Lebanon but you can buy copies of the Oscar-nominated Israeli antiwar film in Beirut's Hamra district, where director Ari Folman saw his life change 26 years ago. "It's one of the greatest films I've ever seen," said Lokman Slim, an activist with Lebanon's UMAM organization, which aims to preserve the country's memories of war by screening movies related to its decades of bloodshed.

Director ARI FOLMAN'S "Waltz With Bashir" got lots of respect but no outright love from the Cannes Film Festival jury last week. The good news: Sony Pictures Classics' Michael Barker and Tom Bernard confirmed that they bought Folman's film, an animated autobiographical documentary about a former Israeli army soldier who tries to recount his long-forgotten mission in the first Lebanon war in the early '80s. The soldier travels around the world interviewing old friends and comrades. Using rudimentary Flash animation, Folman unleashes a pastiche of scenes that are as innovative as they are devastating.