Waltz with Bashir (2008)

Waltz with Bashir is one of the most powerful war films I've ever seen.  This has really stayed with me.  The style of animation is reminiscent of a graphic novel.  The artists take some freedoms with color and size to alter our perception of reality.  And after watching some special features, I appreciate how incredibly difficult it was to animate these images piece by little piece.  It's really quite beautiful despite the heavy subject matter.  War is grotesque but there is also a side of beauty.

Ari Folman explores his memories and his dreams to discover the truth about the 1982 Lebanon War, which he participated in as an Israeli soldier.  Despite the use of drawn images, this is a documentary film.  Folman conducts interviews with his fellow soldiers and his friends to try to reconstruct a truthful picture of the past and attempt to resolve his lingering guilt.  This film recounts the experience of Israeli soldiers, and asks the audience to empathize with their pain.  At the very end of the film, this is all put into proportion asking the audience to contemplate the pain of the victims of the Sabra and Shatila massacre.  This is a breathtaking movie--a must see.