SHORT TAKE: “Waltz with Bashir” (***)

I didn’t exactly love Ari Folman’s “Waltz with Bashir,” which was received quite favorably at this year’s Cannes International Film Festival and will play Toronto in a week’s time.

However, I do have a loads of respect for the director’s cathartic process.  And any animated endeavor that successfully creates this sort of introspective atmosphere deserves laurels above and beyond the typical animated product we see in cinemas year in and year out.

I find myself recalling similar sentiments for Jørgen Leth and Lars von Trier’s “The Five Obstructions” five years ago. (Five years? Wow.) “Bashir” doesn’t entirely connect with me, doesn’t fend off the tendency toward repetition despite a tight running time (though that is certainly a point), but the sheer creativity of its approach makes it difficult to deny on numerous levels.

Using something resembling a documentary format, Folman places himself in the unfolding events of his narrative as a man who can’t recall the circumstances of his military involvement as an Israeli soldier in the first Lebanon War. When one night a friend recounts a chilling recurring dream that seems to have its roots in the conflict, Folman sets out to interview comrades that might shed some light on the black hole in his memory

The final sequence, of course, is when the fantasy of animation fades into the numbing sting of live action reality. The Sabra and Shatila Massacre would send a shock wave throughout the world, and certainly throughout Israel. A Defense Minister would be found guilty of neglegence, only to rise to power as Prime Minister of the region 20 years later.

How soon we forget. And perhaps that is the ultimate point of “Bashir”: Memory can be a mysterious thing, yes, but remembering is the active component in any healing process.