2 - Realistic Documentary Films

By Jeremy Pauze, Soumaya Obey, Reem Zantout

Personal Stories into Films

    In the present blog, two similar documentary films will be presented. They are both animated movies based on personal experience treating similar topics but in different ways. Indeed, Waltz with Bashir and Persepolis both treat the theme of war and its reality through their memories.

The Warped Memories of War Documented in Waltz with Bashir

        Waltz with Bashir (Ari Folman, 2008, Israel, 90 min.) is an animated documentary film; a work of art and of the dreams, memories and interpretations of a soldier who experienced a real war.

    During the height of the Lebanese Civil War in 1982, Israeli Forces (the IDF) were advancing on West Beirut, as part of a larger invasion of Lebanon. The IDF were asked to help by the Phalangists, an allied group of mostly Christian Lebanese militia, to clear the Sabra and Shatila refugee camp of Palestinian fighters. Instead of moving the civilians out of the camp, the Phalangists slaughtered them; several thousand Palestinians were killed. The Israeli forces were fully aware of the massacre that was taking place but did nothing to stop it. Although they didn’t participate in the killings they helped the Phalangists indirectly. 

  The movie is an autobiography on Ari Folman’s memories and experiences as a soldier during the war. A lot of his memories have become repressed, and what little remained have melded with other people’s memories so animation seemed like the best way to present it. Since a lot of the imagery in the film is a representation of his memories and of the other soldiers, much of it is not based on reality. Memories can give a false representation of past events and can change over time. Waltz with Bashir explores whether these memories remain a part of us or develop into a “life” of their own. Folman visits a psychologist who explains that some memories, when suppressed by fear or hatred, can be changed to more positive false memories as a way for our minds to cope. This makes the imagery all the more important to scrutinize, enable to find what is real and not. In many instances it’s not so obvious.

    One image in the film that is particularly intriguing is the scene showing posters of Bashir plastered all over the streets of Beirut. One critic explained that despite the high attention of detail Folman had to depict 1982 Beirut one mistake he supposedly made was to show posters of the president everywhere. Folman probably already knew this and put them there on purpose. Since the film is mostly a retelling of his memories and most of those memories were warped forgotten, this image shows what Folman may have remembered as opposed to what was there in reality.

   Since Waltz with Bashir is done mostly with animation, it evokes a feeling of fantasy. The general view of a documentary film is one that contains real footage to document its story, but using animation can be just as effective. The true story that the film presents remains intact, it’s just the way it’s presented that’s not real. By using animation, Folman took his true story and enriched its narrative with images of spectacle. Folman tried to strike a balance for his audience between an experience of scopophilia, visual pleasure through its animation, and an experience of epistephilia, the satisfaction of learning about real-life events in the war.

    Folman also demonstrates in Waltz with Bashir what is true for all documentary films: although they may seem to capture reality the filmmaker ultimately has control over its direction, and they’re presented with his or her point of view. In Waltz with Bashir,the massacre is told through Folman’s point of view. If the story had followed the memories of a Palestinian who was in the camps and survived the killings it would be a vastly different take and interpretation of the events. The Phalangists and the Israeli forces, which Folman was served in, would have been depicted differently.

     Folman not only exposes his story and the events of the war but he also conducts interviews with fellow soldiers. The film takes an interactive approach on the massacre, helping to alleviate some of the bias that Folman may have had in the retelling of his memories.

    Despite all of its dream-like imagery, the film’s ending shows some real-life footage of the aftermath of the massacre. Folman does this to remind the viewer that although a lot of imaginary imagery is shown the overall story is real; thousands of innocent people were really slaughtered. http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/features/2012/09/2012915163152213255.html 

The people who survived, especially those who didn’t have their memories repressed like Folman had, will live with the horror for the rest of their lives. 

                 

Realism through Persepolis

    Persepolis is an animated film which was released for the first time in May 2007. It is based on Marjane Satrapi's life under the Iranian Revolution in 1978. It was directed by Marjane Satrapi herself and by Vincent Paronnaud. The film is one hour and thirty-five minutes long.

    Persepolis begins in an airport where Marjane Satrapi tries to get on a plane to Iran and remembers her childhood when she was 9 and still living with her parents in Iran. Indeed, the story is based on Marjane’s memories of what she lived.

    Marji was a young girl living in Tehran, the capital of Iran, with the dream of becoming the next prophet of Islam. But her ambitions got affected as the political situation in Iran got worse. Indeed demonstrations against the Shah, the former monarch of Iran, started and a civil resistance was formed. When the Shah left Iran for exile in 1978, elections were made and were won by the Islamic Fundamentalists regime. Strict social and political rules were being imposed on Iran’s population such as forcing women to wear the hijab and killing people when they had different political beliefs. In fact, Marji’s uncle, Anoush, who had taught her a lot about the world, was killed because of his Communists ideologies. Marjane’s family started to participate in protests with the hopes of a better society. 

    Marji, as a little girl, was very implicated in the political aspects of her country and was also influenced by the Western culture. Indeed, she would go through a lot of trouble trying to buy Western music and Western clothing as denim jacket on the black market. This is when Marji’s parents decided to send her to a school in Vienna, Austria, for her safety. She was placed in a Christian school where she soon faced discrimination from the nuns. Even though she had some friends, Marji couldn't overcome the feeling of isolation and loneliness and the fact of being an Iranian. Furthermore, she compared how people in Vienna had freedom and took it for granted to how people in Iran fought to only have a sensation of freedom.

    Eventually, Marji is brought back to Iran and after a period of depression, she attends university and meets new friends. She falls in love with a boy to which she will eventually get married. But Marjane still has this rebellious attitude towards the rules and still fights for gender equality. Later on, she gets divorced and sees a friend of hers get killed trying to escape the police. This is when Marjane’s parents decide to permanently send her abroad. Her grandmother dies and we are brought back to the present where Marji is still unable to board the plane to Iran.

    The issues presented in Persepolis are mainly gender inequalities, religion, freedom and political instability. Those issues can directly be observed and understood by the simple fact of Marjane leaving Iran twice for safety reasons. Indeed, demonstrations did not stop during the whole movie and women were always underestimated and treated differently. Iran’s population was not allowed to drink alcohol and the police was always supervising everything.

   The weekly topic, which is realism, is directly applied and found in Persepolis. Indeed, realism incorporates different realities based on many distinct and separate points of view of the ones who were witnesses of a particular event. In other words, depending on one’s perspective, many facets of reality exist; there is not only one truth.

  Persepolis makes us perceive the reality of the Iranian war in a different way as we normally see it in our daily lives because it presents a different point of view, the one of an Iranian young girl which is actually very rare and unique. This produces a distortion of our perspective on the presented issues. Moreover, the presence of reality gives to its viewers the knowledge about what it was to live this kind of war.

   In Persepolis, the realism is presented through Marjane’s memories which are based on real events. However, not everything presented in the film should be viewed as real events. Indeed, there are some fictive elements like Marji’s conversations with god. Those illusions give a sense of naturalism.

   Like Waltz with Bashir, Persepolis is a movie presented through the illusion of animation. It was done this way to soften the reality and to present the issues without disturbing the viewer's appreciation on what is happening. If it wasn’t an animated documentary, striking images would have been shown. It is easier to incorporate fictif elements in animated films when Marjane was talking to God for example.  

    
  Persepolis is a poetic and expository documentary film as it exposes the Iranian Revolution and presents sounds and images that appeal to the viewer’s emotions.

   The movie Persepolis was based on the book version of Persepolis. Both the book and the movie had a big success presenting something very unusual. Marjane Satrapi also has a website where trailers, interviews, reviews and many other informations concerning Persepolis can be found.

    The movie Persepolis was based on the book version of Persepolis. Both the book and the movie, had a big success presenting something very unusual. Marjane Satrapi also has a website where trailers, interviews, reviews and many other information concerning Persepoliscan be found:

http://www.sonyclassics.com/persepolis/main.html

Power of Imagery

     As discussed in class, animated documentary films have not only the power to convey a story using imagery, but they can also incorporate and project a great amount of emotions, dreams, and personal thoughts. In these personal stories, the viewer learns to open his mind while visualizing, and also learns to control his thoughts and emotions historical facts that may challenge his beliefs, perceptions and opinions by viewing another facet of what happened in, for instance, the massacre of Sabra and Shatila in Waltz with Bashir or any other historical documented event. Ari Folman, in his animated documentary film, proves us that there are many facets to a story. Indeed, one is often led to think there are only two sides to the Lebanese/Palestinian-Israeli conflict. In most cases, the films that document this conflict are either taken from a pro-Palestinian point of view, on a pro-Israeli one, omitting the fact that this conflict is much more complicated than that and that it can be documented from multitude angles and ways.

    As a matter of fact, in both Waltz with Bashir and Persepolis, the historical events are presented in an unusual way : the Lebanese war including Sabra and Shatila massacre through Folman’s, and ex-soldier suffering from PTSD, twisted memories, and the uprising against the Shah of Iran through a little girl’s monologue in Persepolis. While Folman explores his fabricated and un-fabricated memories, he proves to the viewer how one’s memory is fluid and manipulative enough to play and trick on oneself, thus showing us how memory alone can create more than one version of the truth. However, the Israeli does not deny the massacre that occurred in the refugee camp. In fact, his personal story is not biased for he does try to be open about other people’s memories in order to gather facts about the massacre. Also, not only does Folman presents his personal story through his film, but he is also giving the viewer a story of denying others their dignity and humanity, therefore creating a cycle of hate, war and violence. On the other hand, Marjane Satrapi makes use of animation in order to talk about gender inequalities, among other things, and the injustices she suffered not only in Iran during the Islamic Revolution, but also her struggle to fit in when living in Europe; another form of social injustice.

    It is also important to note the use of imagery in both films, In Waltz with Bashir, Folman uses animation in order to combine the abstract with the real imagery by playing with the real world and the dream world in order to make  the viewer doubt as to which “world” he is watching. Animation was also used to soften the reality of the ravages of war. However, Folman switches us back to a real 3-dimensional viewing to snap us back to reality when showing the scenes of the refugee camp massacre to remind us that the Sabra and Shatila tragedy has indeed occurred. On the other hand, film animation in Persepolis was more used to show Marja’s dreams involving God and Karl Marx for instance, and also to invite everyone to watch the animated film, be it a full-grown adult, or a little child. In both documentaries presented, film animation was used in order to, not only soften the reality, but was also used as a medium of freedom of expression.

                     Islamic Revolution in Iran                       Massacre of Sabra and Shatila

    Also, one cannot be unaffected after watching these documentaries. Indeed, the Middle East is still nowadays in a perpetual state of crisis with the Syrian Civil war where thousands of civilians, be it men, women, children, and old persons died either on the Syrian soil, or while trying to flee the war as refugees. Waltz with Bashir makes one remember what is happening in that part of the world even in 2016, while Marji’s Persepolis makes us remember the famous Arab Spring that started in 2011 in Tunisia, followed by Egypt, Libya, Yemen, and Syria. For the Syrian civil war started because of the revolutions that started in these countries. However, no one expected it to be such a long, violent and bloody war that makes one shed tears every time the news are on.

Uprising scenes in (from left to right) Egypt, Libya, Syria, and Tunisia

          Here is an interesting link to a document posted by Al Jazeera, an Arabic media, about the Arab Spring : http://arabpress.typepad.com/files/al-jazeera-daryanavard.pdf .

The Conditioning of War Through Animation

In conclusion, Waltz with Bashir is an Israeli animated documentary film that talks about memory, crimes of war, and also the massacre of Sabra and Shatila. The filmmaker, Ari Folman, makes use of imagery for the most part of the film to soften the gruesome scenes , but snaps us back to reality by showing us real 3-dimensional scenes of the refugee camp massacre. Marjane Satrapi’s Persepolis is also an animated documented film that gives a personal point of view of a little girl on the Iranian Islamic Revolution. Both films are good examples to show how documented events can be animated and how there is no unique truth; many versions of one same event exist .