One Film, One Book, One Theme
The selection of "Waltz With Bashir" for One Film, One Philadelphia dovetails nicely with "Persepolis": The subject of both is war.
An annual visual literacy program copresented by the Greater Philadelphia Film Office and the Free Library of Philadelphia, One Film offers more than a dozen screenings, discussion panels, and workshops at various venues across Philadelphia through March 17.
One Film program assistant Sara Strickland said Waltz was a natural choice.
"We wanted to choose a program that would fit with our One Book selection," she said, referring to Iranian-born Marjane Satrapi's graphic memoir Persepolis. One Book, which began Jan. 20, also goes through March 17 and includes programs on Satrapi's book and its adaptation into an animated film.
Local film scholar Ruth Perlmutter, who served on the One Film selection committee, applauds Folman's decision to use the cartoon genre to tell a story about "human rights and problems of justice."
A harrowing true-to-life account, Waltz follows Folman as he tries to remember an infamous massacre he witnessed while serving with the Israeli Defense Forces during the 1982 Lebanon war. Some of its themes mirror those in Satrapi's account of her childhood in Iran during the Islamic Republic's war with Iraq.
