• Starring: Ari Folman, Ron Ben-Yishai, Ronny Dayag
  • Summary: One night at a bar, an old friend tells director Ari about a recurring nightmare in which he is chased by 26 vicious dogs. Every night, the same number of beasts. The two men conclude that there’s a connection to their Israeli Army mission in the first Lebanon War of the early eighties. Ari is surprised that he can’t remember a thing anymore about that period of his life. Intrigued by this riddle, he decides to meet and interview old friends and comrades around the world. He needs to discover the truth about that time and about himself. As Ari delves deeper and deeper into the mystery, his memory begins to creep up in surreal images. (Sony Classics) Expand
Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 32 out of 33
  2. Negative: 0 out of 33
  1. It is personal filmmaking of the highest order, recognized with an Academy Award nomination for best foreign film.
  2. This psycho-thriller, a Golden Globe winner and presumptive favorite for the foreign-film Oscar, itself is revelatory.
  3. Reviewed by: Peter Brunette
    60
    The chosen style of animation leads to a distracting choppiness that renders the movements, gestures and facial expressions of the interviewees unconvincing. The other problem is that, memory naturally being something that returns in fits and starts, the film is rarely able to sustain any consistent narrative thrust.

See all 33 Critic Reviews

Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 23 out of 28
  2. Negative: 3 out of 28
  1. Wow. I can't rate this film highly enough. First of all we have a great screenplay, based on the first hand accounts / recollections of the director and some of his fellow soldiers in the Israeli conflict with Lebanon in 1982. Perhaps for budgetary reasons animation is used instead of live action to tell this tale. The animation / rotoscoping is nonetheless stunning (for the most part), and adds rather than detracts from the narrative. A film about memory, war, guilt, friendship and more. A powerfully emotional ending. A great film, an important film, watch it. Expand
    • 0 of 0 users said yes
  2. MikeMike
    5
    Wow. This movie bored me to sleep. The animation style is fairly interesting but the disjointed story just didn't have enough to keep me interested. Maybe more real footage would have made me care. I'm not PC enough to rate this higher than a generous 5. Israeli and Lebanese viewers may be interested. Others may just snooze and wish for something, anything, more. Expand
    • 0 of 0 users said yes
  3. DroogD.
    3
    Wonderful animation ... and incredibly boring.
    • 0 of 0 users said yes

See all 28 User Reviews

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