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13 SOFIA INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL
22.03. - 20:15,
Lucky Cinema - Plovdiv

Director:  Ari Folman
Cinematography:  Ari Folman , Yoni Goodman (animation)
Music:  Max Richter
Producers:  Ari Folman , Yael Nahlieli, Serge Lalou, Gerhard Meixner and Roman Paul
Screenplay:  Ari Folman
Production:  Bridget Folman Film Gang/Les Films d'Ici/Razor Film
International distribution:  The Match Factory
Waltz with Bashir
Vals im Bashir
Waltz with Bashir
Israel-France-Germany , 2008, 87 min, color
Awards:  Warsaw Internatrional Film Festival 2008 - "Audience Award" ; BIFA and “Golden Globe” for best foreign language film; EFA for music; LAFCA for animation; Oscar ’08 – nomination for best foreign language film

The autobiographical protagonist Ari sets out to find old friends and other people who can help him recall the brutal massacre in the Palestinian refugee camps of Sabra and Shatila, which Israeli forces countenanced during their 1982 occupation of West Beirut. The director / protagonist was then a member of the army – will he manage to overcome the trauma and amnesia and remember whether he was a party to one of the darkest chapters of Israeli history?
This unconventional film by Ari Folman is one of the most powerful animation projects in the history of cinema. In this it was aided not only by its realistic, indeed autobiographical basis, but also by its form as an animated documentary. “War is surreal and memory so treacherous that I said I would rather set off down memory lane with a team of animators,” explained Folman. In the steps of Persepolis, this is another animated film about recent history in the Near East – and every bit as absorbing, moving and horrific.

Ari Folman
Israeli director, born in 1962 in Haifa, Israel. He completed his military service in the mid-80s and hit the road. When he returned he studied film, and debuted with the feature-length documentary Comfortably Numb, and now makes documentary and feature series for television. His first feature film Saint Clara, based on the novel by Czech author Pavel Kohout, won the Special Jury Prize at the Karlovy Vary IFF and six awards of the Israeli Film Academy (including the Best Director and Best Film Awards).
1991  Comfortably Numb – docu
1996  Clara Hakadusha
2001  Made in Israel
2008  Vals im Bashir – animation docu
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