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One night at a bar, an old friend tells director Ari Folman 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. Folman 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 Folman delves deeper into the mystery, his memory begins to creep up in surreal images.

Waltz With Bashir is an innovative reinvention of the documentary form. Israeli director Folman has made a personal exploration of his past in to a visually exciting film. The look is reminiscent of Richard Linklater's rotoscope films Waking Life and A Scanner Darkly, but the animation here is something different: a combination of Flash, classic and 3D animation that captures the bizarre, dreamlike trance Folman and his interview subjects were under while fighting this war.

Waltz With Bashir is a film about memory and the repercussions of war. It's not a talking heads history lesson, but a stylish and fascinating exploration of one man's psyche and confusion during a troubled time. I spoke with Folman about the film and his thoughts on this period of his life. 

Secrets of the City: Where does this film stand amongst all your body of work?

Ari Folman: It's my fourth feature film, and I've done a lot of TV stuff as a writer - many dramatic series, one of them was adapted here by HBO, called In Treatment. I did some documentaries as well. I do them all.

SOTC: Which do you prefer, the documentary or the fiction work?

AF: Now I'm a little fed up with documentary.

SOTC: Why's that?

AF: Basically because they are too dependent on interviews. I do consider myself mainly a screenwriter so I go more for fiction; there are more opportunities I feel.

SOTC: Like using your imagination a bit more?

AF: Yeah, there's more freedom.

SOTC: War is a subject you've tackled before, correct?

AF: My first film was a documentary I shot when I graduated film school. It was during the first Gulf War in 1991. Israel was threatened by Iraqi missiles, people were in sealed rooms because they thought they were going to go through a chemical attack, so we basically shot interviews in the sealed room. It was a pretty funny film in a way. They were all going through anxiety attacks with no good reason because nothing happened.

SOTC: Are you drawn to war as a subject for film because of your service?

AF: I was not drawn to that all until this film. I didn't plan it, a few things happened in my life and I went for it. But it's not my natural tendency.

SOTC: What subjects do you prefer exploring in your film?

AF: Eclectic, changing from one film to another so I don't get stuck in one medium or source.

SOTC: Talk about the process of making this film, I know it's important to you that people know this isn't rotoscoping animation.

AF: No, it's not rotoscoping. First we advertised on the internet; we were looking for stories from the first Lebanon war. We got more than 100 responses so we interviewed those people. Based upon the research I wrote a feature-length script. I did some animated documentaries before so I learned the hard way that the human ear is not tolerant to location sound in animation so we shot everything in a sound studio. All the interviews and everything we could dramatize in the studio we did. Then we cut it into a digital video film. The rotoscope process, in a very illustrative way, you take the video and you draw over it. We didn't want to do that because I thought it was a problem getting emotionally attached to the characters if it's drawn over the video. So we made storyboards out of the video and picked up some 3,000 key-frames, we drew them and we started animating the frames.

SOTC: How do you think this animation process helps this story?

AF: It gives me as a filmmaker the freedom to go from reality to non-reality; to dreams, hallucinations, subconscious stuff, and it gives the audience the freedom as well to flow, you know, to stream with the storyline and with the events freely and easily like it's one concept.

SOTC: Some of the images are so surreal in the film, in particular the woman floating in the ocean. Where did the idea for those images come from?

AF: It's a dream that person had, so I had to give an interpretation to that dream, and other people's dreams, which is fun. Once you take the freedom to adopt other people's imagination you can do whatever you want.

SOTC: Assuming most Americans don't know much about the Lebanon war, what is you're hope for audiences here with this film?

AF: I think it is a very universal story. This story could have been written by an ex American soldier in Vietnam or a current American soldier in Iraq. So I think they can come to watch the film knowing nothing at all, and it is quite an experience because of the way the film was done. Once they come and see it, if afterwards they feel the urge to go and Google the Lebanon war and learn more it's great. If nothing else, they went though a cinematic experience and that is enough.

SOTC: Do you think the look of the film, the animation style, makes it more accessible to an American audience?

AF: I think it makes it more accessible to audiences all over the world.

SOTC: Sure, most people might be afraid to watch documentaries...

AF: Yeah, and I believe that animation is good for adults, not only for the family stuff and Disney stuff. I do believe this film can work for everyone.

SOTC: The final minutes of the film you cut to some live-action documentary footage, and it's really powerful, haunting stuff. It's shocking, really. Talk about that and why the decision that decision was made.

AF: That decision was always meant to be, it was always there since the very beginning. It's not an artistic decision; it's an ideological decision. I think it puts the whole film in proportion because you see in the end that real people were massacred and those things happened. There is nowhere to hide. It's only 60 seconds but it feels like an eternity, and it hits you really hard.

SOTC: Any idea why these moments were repressed from your memory?

AF: They were repressed because I made a deliberate decision to repress them. I believe in general that repressing is not such a bad idea. I won't agree with Freud on that one. Sometimes when you go through a traumatic event it helps you just to go on with your life and be happy as much as you can. But once it's out it's out and you have to deal with it.

SOTC: What was it about your friend Boaz's dream about the dogs that awoke this in you, and pushed you to pursue your past?

AF: It's a very imaginative dream, very illustrative. You have a friend for so many years and then you realize you really know nothing about them. Because this is an essential part of his life and you feel disconnected to that so you start asking questions about yourself. What does it mean to you? And what is your past? Are there memories that were suppressed and where are they? Do they still exist?

SOTC: Was the making of this film therapeutic for you?

AF: The film was therapeutic; I think any kind of filmmaking is therapeutic for me. It is always. I think this one in particular because it is so autobiographical, but if I had to sum it up it's me getting connected to who I used to be when I was 17. It's a big thing to accomplish after four years of making it, and it's enough, I can't ask for more.

SOTC: Do you feel like you've put it to bed? Are you ok with what happened at that time in your life?

AF: I'm at peace with the guy I used to be at 19. Yeah but you never know. When my previous film was released it was six years ago and the last question a journalist asked me was why don't I make a film about my being a soldier in the first Lebanon war? And I said I couldn't care less about that period in my life. I'll never do a film, never waste a day in my life dealing with that. And here we are in Minneapolis talking about that very film.

SOTC: What does this film mean for you as a former soldier and as a filmmaker? Are they the same, or do you look at it differently in each context?

AF: I don't look at myself as a former soldier, although I am as you can see in the film, it's not part of my essence. As a filmmaker, it's exploring a new world which is beautiful.

SOTC: For your next film you're going to be working with animation again, right? Talk about that if you could.

AF: Yes, I optioned a book by a Polish writer. His name is Stanisław Lem. He's my all-time science-fiction favorite. The book is The Futurological Congress; of course the film will have a different title. We'll do it mostly animated.

SOTC: You in script stage with it right now?

AF: Yeah, I'm writing it while flying everyday to different places, 2 hours a day.

SOTC: Do you find it difficult to work like that, or do you like having the work to do while traveling?

AF: It's hard, but it's ok. I can't complain. It's better than people not paying attention to your films.

SOTC: You have three young kids. Do you want them to see the film someday down the road?

AF: They will see it. Of course they will see it. The oldest one is only six so they have time. It's not that I want them to see what I used to be, but I want them to see what war looks like. Maybe it will help them decide what they will do with their life.

SOTC: With the animation and the look of the film it's very stylish. I know you wanted to capture what war is really like. The scene where you are walking down the street and everything else is moving in fast-forward, is that to put the audience in your state of mind at the time?

AF: Yeah in a way, you have to understand that the time difference between being in the middle of war with all the destruction and losses there and being back home was 20 minutes in a helicopter. A guy comes back from Iraq, and it's six days. This is 20 minutes and you're in deep shock. You're so young, and just can't take it. The difference.

SOTC: This being such a personal documentary for you, but you feature friends of yours and you interview many people. Have you gotten responses from any of them?

AF: Of course, it was a cathartic journey for most of them, but not for all of them. You've been drawn by very talented people for two years, and in a way it's kind of flattering, and it's confusing in a different way. At the opening screening you are in deep shock watching yourself on the big screen.

SOTC: Was it hard for some of them to see themselves on screen?

AF: Yeah, for the guy who swam back home it was very complicated.

SOTC: This has been nominated for Best Foreign Language Film. Do you care about that sort of thing?

AF: Of course I care. I hope to get the Oscar. I'm no different than anybody else. Being nominated is enough though.

SOTC: I really love the soundtrack for this film. The way you bounced back and forth between pop songs and a very haunting score. Were the songs chosen because they were what you were listening to at the time?

AF: No I'm not a very big 80's music fan. Some friends of mine wrote several songs for the film, and then my editor - she's an 80's fan - she picked up "Enola Gay" [by OMD] and "This Is Not A Love Song" [P.I.L."], and the guy who scored the film, Max Richter -I think he's a very talented musician - I have his albums, but I didn't know him, and I thought he was the perfect choice so I contacted him and he went for it.

Waltz With Bashir opens Friday at the Uptown Theater, showtimes (1:15 3:15 5:15) 7:30 9:30