NOTE: Ari Folman, the director, plays the main character; however his character's name is not mentioned anywhere in the film nor in the credits. Since the film is a Docudrama based on his real personal journey, this recap assumes that the character's name is Ari Folman.
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The Dark Sea Flashback
The movie opens on a scene of 26 vicious dogs with demonic glowing eyes running madly through the streets of Tel Aviv. Though the dogs seem murderous, they ignore all the people they run past, finally stopping at the foot of a building and barking up at a window on the upper floor. We see a man in the window, looking down at the dogs with trepidation.
We cut back to the present, where we discover that this is a story being told by Boaz Rein about a recurring nightmare he's been having for many years. He is telling this story to his estranged old friend Ari Folman at a bar. The two men appear to be in their 40s. Boaz explains that during the First Lebanon War of 1982, he was part of an infantry force tasked with apprehending Palestinian terrorists in the countryside. His commander, knowing that Boaz could not bring himself to shoot a living person, gave him a silenced marksman rifle and ordered him to walk ahead of the force and shoot any dogs that started to bark, before they could ruin the element of surprise. The 26 dogs he shot have been haunting his nightmares ever since. When Boaz asks Ari whether he has similar dreams, Ari responds that he doesn't remember the war at all.
That night, after the two men part ways again, Ari strolls down the boardwalk and suddenly has his first ever flashback from the war. He recalls himself as a young man, lying face-up and naked in a black sea at night. Burning stars fall gently from the sky, illuminating the towering buildings of a city. He gets out of the water along with two other young men. The three naked, skinny, somewhat meek figures walk out of the sea towards the city. They get dressed, and we see that they are all IDF soldiers. As the sun comes up and they make their way back into the city, Ari turns a corner and is suddenly confronted with masses of Palestinian women in black robes, streaming out of an alley past him, raising their hands to the sky in grief and horror. Ari instantly recognizes this surreal memory as the night of the massacres in the Palestinian refugee camps of Sabra and Shatila in Beirut.
We cut back to the present, where we discover that this is a story being told by Boaz Rein about a recurring nightmare he's been having for many years. He is telling this story to his estranged old friend Ari Folman at a bar. The two men appear to be in their 40s. Boaz explains that during the First Lebanon War of 1982, he was part of an infantry force tasked with apprehending Palestinian terrorists in the countryside. His commander, knowing that Boaz could not bring himself to shoot a living person, gave him a silenced marksman rifle and ordered him to walk ahead of the force and shoot any dogs that started to bark, before they could ruin the element of surprise. The 26 dogs he shot have been haunting his nightmares ever since. When Boaz asks Ari whether he has similar dreams, Ari responds that he doesn't remember the war at all.
That night, after the two men part ways again, Ari strolls down the boardwalk and suddenly has his first ever flashback from the war. He recalls himself as a young man, lying face-up and naked in a black sea at night. Burning stars fall gently from the sky, illuminating the towering buildings of a city. He gets out of the water along with two other young men. The three naked, skinny, somewhat meek figures walk out of the sea towards the city. They get dressed, and we see that they are all IDF soldiers. As the sun comes up and they make their way back into the city, Ari turns a corner and is suddenly confronted with masses of Palestinian women in black robes, streaming out of an alley past him, raising their hands to the sky in grief and horror. Ari instantly recognizes this surreal memory as the night of the massacres in the Palestinian refugee camps of Sabra and Shatila in Beirut.
Carmi Cna'an
The next morning, Ari pays a visit to a friend, therapist Ori Sivan. Listening to Ari's story, Ori begins to explain the unusual nature of memory. He describes an experiment where people were shown doctored photographs of themselves in situations where they had never actually been; Some of the people accepted the photographs as fact instantly, while the others took only a few days to construct a memory from scratch to explain the photograph. He advises Ari to go seek the other people who were with him in Lebanon in order to learn the truth. When Ari asks whether this could be dangerous to his psyche, Ori reassures him that the human brain has mechanisms to protect it from learning what it doesn't want to learn.
Ari goes to the Netherlands to meet Carmi Cna'an, one of the two men from his Beirut memory. As the two men smoke some marijuana in the snowy landscape of the Dutch winter, we discover that Carmi was a promising young man who lost his scholarly ambitions after the war and instead made a fortune selling falafel in Utrecht. In the study at his country house, Carmi begins to describe the first day of the war to Ari. He recounts how he and his unit were sent as a naval invasion force on board a small ship. He calls it a "Love Boat", remembering the other soldiers partying and dancing to music, though he also admits that it was probably nothing of the sort - just a small yacht, possibly commandeered by the IDF for the operation. Carmi himself was woefully seasick throughout the trip; feeling ashamed of himself for being such a wimp, he fell asleep and began to dream intensely. In his dream, a giant naked woman swam aboard the boat, picked him up, and carried him away - a fantasy about a first-time sexual experience. As they swim away together, however, he suddenly sees an enemy bomber swoop down and blow the boat up, with his friends burning alive aboard. Carmi connects this dream to his own feelings of inadequacy: a perception that everyone but him had a rampant sex-life. He says he compensated for those feelings by joining the combat infantry against his better judgment.
Carmi continues, describing the invasion itself, as the IDF troops came ashore unopposed but nevertheless shot wildly into the city. He can't even remember which city it was, but recalls that a car drove up and was immediately riddled with dozens of bullets by the soldiers. After the shooting ended and the soldiers began to advance, he saw that the occupants of the car - now dead - were just an innocent family.
When Carmi inquires why Ari came to visit him, Ari explains that Carmi appears in his memory from the night of the massacres. Carmi is perplexed; he clearly remembers being in Beirut that night, but doesn't recall anything related to the massacres at all.
Ari goes to the Netherlands to meet Carmi Cna'an, one of the two men from his Beirut memory. As the two men smoke some marijuana in the snowy landscape of the Dutch winter, we discover that Carmi was a promising young man who lost his scholarly ambitions after the war and instead made a fortune selling falafel in Utrecht. In the study at his country house, Carmi begins to describe the first day of the war to Ari. He recounts how he and his unit were sent as a naval invasion force on board a small ship. He calls it a "Love Boat", remembering the other soldiers partying and dancing to music, though he also admits that it was probably nothing of the sort - just a small yacht, possibly commandeered by the IDF for the operation. Carmi himself was woefully seasick throughout the trip; feeling ashamed of himself for being such a wimp, he fell asleep and began to dream intensely. In his dream, a giant naked woman swam aboard the boat, picked him up, and carried him away - a fantasy about a first-time sexual experience. As they swim away together, however, he suddenly sees an enemy bomber swoop down and blow the boat up, with his friends burning alive aboard. Carmi connects this dream to his own feelings of inadequacy: a perception that everyone but him had a rampant sex-life. He says he compensated for those feelings by joining the combat infantry against his better judgment.
Carmi continues, describing the invasion itself, as the IDF troops came ashore unopposed but nevertheless shot wildly into the city. He can't even remember which city it was, but recalls that a car drove up and was immediately riddled with dozens of bullets by the soldiers. After the shooting ended and the soldiers began to advance, he saw that the occupants of the car - now dead - were just an innocent family.
When Carmi inquires why Ari came to visit him, Ari explains that Carmi appears in his memory from the night of the massacres. Carmi is perplexed; he clearly remembers being in Beirut that night, but doesn't recall anything related to the massacres at all.
Ronny Dayag
In the taxi on his way back to the airport from Carmi's house, Ari suddenly has a major flashback from the first day of the war. He remembers commanding an M113 armored personnel carrier driving up the coastal road into Lebanon, while he and the other crewmen fired blindly and continuously at the scenery out of sheer terror. That night, an officer approached him and ordered him to load up all the wounded and dead, and proceed to "dump" them at a collection site. It is obvious that the officer cared very little about the casualties. Ari took his M113 to look for this collection site, a "big bright light", noting that until that day he had never even seen a scraped knee, let alone dead bodies or open wounds. The M113 crew continued firing blindly into the darkness as they did during the day. They found the collection site - a landing zone for massive Sea Stallion helicopters - "dumped" the bodies almost dispassionately and mechanically, washed the blood out of the vehicle, and then drove back into the night.
Ari decides to interview Ronny Dayag, whose armored battalion had been operating in the same area where Ari evacuated the casualties that first night. Dayag, then a loader in a Merkava tank crew, describes his first day of the war as though it was the start of a fun field trip, with him and his friends taking pictures and fooling around. He explains how being inside a heavily-armored machine gives you the feeling of invincibility. However he then describes how the tank commander, who had been turned out of his hatch, was suddenly shot by a sniper. This signaled the start of an ambush in which Dayag's tank was hit with multiple anti-tank rockets and disabled. He describes how initially the young men inside the tank froze and didn't know how to react, but eventually they had no choice but to jump out of the tank and flee towards the sea, being shot dead one by one as they ran.
Dayag managed to reach a large boulder and hid behind it, expecting the rest of his armored column to advance and rescue him. Instead they retreated. He stayed hidden as the Palestinian fighters came down to the beach, laughing and smoking, apparently believing they had killed all of the Israelis. He recalls thinking about his close relationship with his mother, being the eldest son whom she relied on, and how she would react to news of his death. He waited until nightfall, then crawled into the sea. Swimming away from the shore to remain out of sight, he started heading south along the coastline, terrified that at any point he could be spotted and killed. At one point he was nearly struck by a stray shell. Eventually, spotting a great light on the horizon, he decided to cut back towards the shore. He nearly drowned of exhaustion, but the sea carried him to the shore where he discovered that he'd reached the very same battalion that had abandoned him.
Dayag relates his experiences after the war, saying that he felt very uncomfortable attending the funerals of his fallen comrades due to feeling that the families saw him as a coward who cared only to save himself. It is left ambiguous as to whether this was actually the case or whether he was simply projecting his own feelings of inadequacy onto them. Despite the obvious certain-death scenario he had escaped, he laments that he was not able to rise to the occasion and become a hero to save his friends. He has since cut contact with the families and no longer attends the memorials.
Ari decides to interview Ronny Dayag, whose armored battalion had been operating in the same area where Ari evacuated the casualties that first night. Dayag, then a loader in a Merkava tank crew, describes his first day of the war as though it was the start of a fun field trip, with him and his friends taking pictures and fooling around. He explains how being inside a heavily-armored machine gives you the feeling of invincibility. However he then describes how the tank commander, who had been turned out of his hatch, was suddenly shot by a sniper. This signaled the start of an ambush in which Dayag's tank was hit with multiple anti-tank rockets and disabled. He describes how initially the young men inside the tank froze and didn't know how to react, but eventually they had no choice but to jump out of the tank and flee towards the sea, being shot dead one by one as they ran.
Dayag managed to reach a large boulder and hid behind it, expecting the rest of his armored column to advance and rescue him. Instead they retreated. He stayed hidden as the Palestinian fighters came down to the beach, laughing and smoking, apparently believing they had killed all of the Israelis. He recalls thinking about his close relationship with his mother, being the eldest son whom she relied on, and how she would react to news of his death. He waited until nightfall, then crawled into the sea. Swimming away from the shore to remain out of sight, he started heading south along the coastline, terrified that at any point he could be spotted and killed. At one point he was nearly struck by a stray shell. Eventually, spotting a great light on the horizon, he decided to cut back towards the shore. He nearly drowned of exhaustion, but the sea carried him to the shore where he discovered that he'd reached the very same battalion that had abandoned him.
Dayag relates his experiences after the war, saying that he felt very uncomfortable attending the funerals of his fallen comrades due to feeling that the families saw him as a coward who cared only to save himself. It is left ambiguous as to whether this was actually the case or whether he was simply projecting his own feelings of inadequacy onto them. Despite the obvious certain-death scenario he had escaped, he laments that he was not able to rise to the occasion and become a hero to save his friends. He has since cut contact with the families and no longer attends the memorials.
Shmuel Frenkel
Ari's memories continue to return, and he describes how his war experience gradually turned from harrowing hysteria into a laid-back routine. This is told over a montage of events, among which are the many friendly-fire incidents where Israeli Air Force planes bombed their own units. This culminates in a shot of Ari and a friend sitting in the sun next to a banana-leaf lean-to on the beach, as Ari practices throwing rocks at an empty bottle and eventually getting fed up and shooting it with his rifle. He then says that the most vivid memory he has from this period is the smell of Patchouli oil, the trendy perfume used constantly by his tent-mate, Frenkel.
We cut back to the present, where Shmuel Frenkel is practicing martial arts in a dojo. Frenkel remind Ari how to apply Patchouli oil, and then explains why he used it so regularly: It was a way to signal his presence to his troops at night, thanks to the pungent smell.
This is followed by a short animated sequence in which a group of terrorists in a red Mercedes wreak havoc on the Israeli troops. They first kill a soldier who had been left behind by a helicopter, and then perform a bloody drive-by shooting in which they kill several more soldiers in the middle of town. The IDF attempts to take the Mercedes out with ever-escalating methods, causing only collateral damage. This culminates in an F-4 jet dropping a bomb on the Mercedes, taking out a whole street but failing to destroy the car itself.
After that montage, Frenkel describes the day-to-day routine in Lebanon: Breakfast, a dip in the sea, and then gearing up and going out to hunt terrorists. This is accompanied by a montage of satirical shots showing the chain of command: First is Ariel Sharon, having an opulent breakfast at his ranch; He picks up the phone and calls Prime Minister Menachem Begin, looking meek and emaciated as he sits in his pyjamas in his dark apartment in Jerusalem with the blinds down, eating what looks like a pair of pills on an empty plate, looking impotent and confused. Sharon hangs up, and then calls Gen. Amos Yaron, commander of the IDF push into Lebanon, who is sitting down for breakfast on a beautiful balcony somewhere in the Lebanese countryside. Yaron finally phones the soldiers on the beach to order them out to combat.
The movie cuts straight to the soldiers out on patrol in an orchard, backed up by an M113, as Frenkel narrates. As they advance, we see shadows of young teenagers carrying RPGs, shadowing them. Finally, one of the children steps out in front of the force and fires an RPG at the M113. The soldiers hit the dirt but continue crawling forward. Frenkel describes how someone yelled out his name, and he spotted a kid with an RPG. We then see the entire force open fire, and later the body of the dead child lying bloody in the orchard.
Ari asks Frenkel whether he was there too. Frenkel replies that Ari had been with him ever since Squad Commander training, and thus would've been with him everywhere he went during the war. Ari accepts this, though it is clear that he doesn't actually remember any of it yet.
We cut back to the present, where Shmuel Frenkel is practicing martial arts in a dojo. Frenkel remind Ari how to apply Patchouli oil, and then explains why he used it so regularly: It was a way to signal his presence to his troops at night, thanks to the pungent smell.
This is followed by a short animated sequence in which a group of terrorists in a red Mercedes wreak havoc on the Israeli troops. They first kill a soldier who had been left behind by a helicopter, and then perform a bloody drive-by shooting in which they kill several more soldiers in the middle of town. The IDF attempts to take the Mercedes out with ever-escalating methods, causing only collateral damage. This culminates in an F-4 jet dropping a bomb on the Mercedes, taking out a whole street but failing to destroy the car itself.
After that montage, Frenkel describes the day-to-day routine in Lebanon: Breakfast, a dip in the sea, and then gearing up and going out to hunt terrorists. This is accompanied by a montage of satirical shots showing the chain of command: First is Ariel Sharon, having an opulent breakfast at his ranch; He picks up the phone and calls Prime Minister Menachem Begin, looking meek and emaciated as he sits in his pyjamas in his dark apartment in Jerusalem with the blinds down, eating what looks like a pair of pills on an empty plate, looking impotent and confused. Sharon hangs up, and then calls Gen. Amos Yaron, commander of the IDF push into Lebanon, who is sitting down for breakfast on a beautiful balcony somewhere in the Lebanese countryside. Yaron finally phones the soldiers on the beach to order them out to combat.
The movie cuts straight to the soldiers out on patrol in an orchard, backed up by an M113, as Frenkel narrates. As they advance, we see shadows of young teenagers carrying RPGs, shadowing them. Finally, one of the children steps out in front of the force and fires an RPG at the M113. The soldiers hit the dirt but continue crawling forward. Frenkel describes how someone yelled out his name, and he spotted a kid with an RPG. We then see the entire force open fire, and later the body of the dead child lying bloody in the orchard.
Ari asks Frenkel whether he was there too. Frenkel replies that Ari had been with him ever since Squad Commander training, and thus would've been with him everywhere he went during the war. Ari accepts this, though it is clear that he doesn't actually remember any of it yet.
The First Leave Home
Ari goes to speak with psychologist Prof. Zahava Solomon. He asks her how it is possible that he can't remember such a dramatic event. Solomon explains that this is called a "dissociative event"; the brain finds ways to detach itself from the situation in order to protect the psyche. She describes a patient she treated after the war, an amateur photographer. This man saw his time in Lebanon as though through the lens of an imaginary movie camera, allowing him to stay disconnected from the horrors going on around him and even pretend that it was all just a cool war film. However, at one point, his unit reached the Hippodrome in Beirut where he saw piles of dead and dying Arabian horses. The immorality of the suffering of those innocent horses finally "broke his camera", pulling him back into the reality of the situation, at which point he lost his sanity.
Solomon asks Ari whether he remembers other parts of that period, such as going home on leave. Ari replies that he actually remembers every leave in perfect detail. He recalls that, as a child during the Yom Kippur War, everyone practically barricaded themselves indoors expecting death to rain down from the skies at any moment. In contrast, when he got home from Lebanon after the first six weeks, he was amazed to see that life back home was proceeding as if the war wasn't happening at all. The movie visually shows this as Ari walking down the street at normal pace, wearing his army fatigues, while the people and cars are just blurs flying past him in their normal day-to-day bustle. He add that during that home leave, his only objective was to try to get back together with his girlfriend, Yaeli, who had dumped him just before the war started. We see him quietly observing her dancing at a busy club. We also see Boaz Rein standing in the corner, observing Yaeli.
Back to the present, Boaz and Ari meet again for drinks. This time it is Ari who is looking distraught. Boaz inquires about Ari's quest to find his memories, and Ari says that he's almost got the full picture of the events. Boaz mentions Yaeli, and then confesses that he had a crush on her for many years. This upsets Ari, and Boaz has to remind him that all this was 20 years ago. He reminds Ari that he didn't have a good family life like Ari did back then, to which Ari replies that his family was not as comforting as it might've seemed. He recalls that when he got home on his first leave, his father told him a story from his own experience in World War II, where he and the other Russian soldiers got a 48 hour leave. They rode a train all the way back from the front lines to Stalingrad, and when they got off the train, they only had a few moments left to hug their girlfriends before being ordered back on the same train and right back to the front. As it turned out, his father's story was prophetic: Ari only got 24 hours at home before being called back to Lebanon.
Solomon asks Ari whether he remembers other parts of that period, such as going home on leave. Ari replies that he actually remembers every leave in perfect detail. He recalls that, as a child during the Yom Kippur War, everyone practically barricaded themselves indoors expecting death to rain down from the skies at any moment. In contrast, when he got home from Lebanon after the first six weeks, he was amazed to see that life back home was proceeding as if the war wasn't happening at all. The movie visually shows this as Ari walking down the street at normal pace, wearing his army fatigues, while the people and cars are just blurs flying past him in their normal day-to-day bustle. He add that during that home leave, his only objective was to try to get back together with his girlfriend, Yaeli, who had dumped him just before the war started. We see him quietly observing her dancing at a busy club. We also see Boaz Rein standing in the corner, observing Yaeli.
Back to the present, Boaz and Ari meet again for drinks. This time it is Ari who is looking distraught. Boaz inquires about Ari's quest to find his memories, and Ari says that he's almost got the full picture of the events. Boaz mentions Yaeli, and then confesses that he had a crush on her for many years. This upsets Ari, and Boaz has to remind him that all this was 20 years ago. He reminds Ari that he didn't have a good family life like Ari did back then, to which Ari replies that his family was not as comforting as it might've seemed. He recalls that when he got home on his first leave, his father told him a story from his own experience in World War II, where he and the other Russian soldiers got a 48 hour leave. They rode a train all the way back from the front lines to Stalingrad, and when they got off the train, they only had a few moments left to hug their girlfriends before being ordered back on the same train and right back to the front. As it turned out, his father's story was prophetic: Ari only got 24 hours at home before being called back to Lebanon.
Bashir is Dead
Ari and Boaz sarcastically reminisce about the car bomb "trend" that was starting around the time Ari got back to Lebanon. Ari recalls being ordered to a makeshift headquarters set up inside an opulent Lebanese villa on the outskirts of Beirut. There, among scenes of soldiers enjoying the villa and its contents like they owned the place, he found a field officer of Major rank sitting in his underpants on a sofa and watching the previous owner's collection of hardcore German pornography on VHS. The Major finally addressed him, informing him that word has come down from Military Intelligence that a red Mercedes packed with explosives is expected to arrive sometime in the future to blow up Ari's checkpoint position and kill all his men. The Major orders Ari to blow up the Mercedes first — any Mercedes that shows up.
That night, Ari's unit was on full alert, waiting for the red Mercedes. Shortly before dawn, a Mercedes ice-cream truck drove through the checkpoint, while Ari hallucinated the ghostly walking image of his girlfriend Yaeli following behind it. The radio-phone suddenly rang, and he received a call from the Major informing him that Bashir Gemayel, President of Lebanon, has been assassinated. As the ghostly Yaeli sat by his side, Ari received his orders to pack up and get ready to invade Beirut.
That night, Ari's unit was on full alert, waiting for the red Mercedes. Shortly before dawn, a Mercedes ice-cream truck drove through the checkpoint, while Ari hallucinated the ghostly walking image of his girlfriend Yaeli following behind it. The radio-phone suddenly rang, and he received a call from the Major informing him that Bashir Gemayel, President of Lebanon, has been assassinated. As the ghostly Yaeli sat by his side, Ari received his orders to pack up and get ready to invade Beirut.
Waltz with Bashir
Ari says he doesn't recall the helicopter flight to Beirut, but clearly remembers having morbid thoughts about wanting to die just to spite Yaeli - to force her to live with the guilt of having dumped him. The helicopter finally arrived at Beirut International Airport, and Ari decided to take a walk inside the terminal. He recalls feeling excited as though he was about to take a trip abroad, seeing the terminal as it would have been in better days, before suddenly snapping back to reality and realizing that the entire terminal and duty-free section was abandoned and looted; the magnificent airliner jets outside nothing more than bombed-out skeletons. He was starting to realize the terrifying nature of what lay ahead.
Ari recounts an event that followed soon after, as his unit moved deeper into Beirut. Advancing along a highway near the coast, the unit suddenly came under sniper fire from one of the tall hotels lining a junction. The soldiers dove into a ditch by the side of the road, pinned down, unable to reach their casualties lying in the middle of the highway. He then describes seeing journalist Ron Ben-Yishai walking upright into the scene, with bullets whizzing past him, his cameraman crawling on all fours next to him.
The movie now cuts to an interview with Ron Ben-Yishai himself, describing the situation. He says that this happened at a junction on the western end of Hamra street in West Beirut. He describes the sound that RPG rockets make as they fly past, before exploding and shattering the walls. He also recalls how the windows and balconies of the surrounding buildings were filled with curious Lebanese who had been watching the entire event as though it was a matinee.
Shmuel Frenkel continues the narration from his own perspective. He describes how the force was pinned down, with no hope of making it past the intersection. He says he suddenly realized that the weapon he'd been using - a Galil assault rifle - felt inadequate. He had trained his entire military career with an FN MAG machine gun, and now felt incompetent without it. This is illustrated by a shot of him in the ditch, holding an assault rifle that looks absolutely tiny. He turned to his MAG operator and demanded he hand it over. After the soldier protested, Frenkel grabbed the weapon by force.
Ari, now remembering the event, recalls how he saw Frenkel running straight into the junction, firing his weapon in all directions while seemingly dancing. He says he got the impression that Frenkel was essentially showing the Palestinian shooters that he had no intention of ever leaving the junction, demoralizing them. As Frenkel is seen dancing a waltz with his MAG, surrounded by giant posters of Bashir Gemayel hanging from every building, Ari says that at that same time, only a few hundred meters away, the Christian Phalangists were planning their massacre in the Sabra and Shatila camps.
Ari recounts an event that followed soon after, as his unit moved deeper into Beirut. Advancing along a highway near the coast, the unit suddenly came under sniper fire from one of the tall hotels lining a junction. The soldiers dove into a ditch by the side of the road, pinned down, unable to reach their casualties lying in the middle of the highway. He then describes seeing journalist Ron Ben-Yishai walking upright into the scene, with bullets whizzing past him, his cameraman crawling on all fours next to him.
The movie now cuts to an interview with Ron Ben-Yishai himself, describing the situation. He says that this happened at a junction on the western end of Hamra street in West Beirut. He describes the sound that RPG rockets make as they fly past, before exploding and shattering the walls. He also recalls how the windows and balconies of the surrounding buildings were filled with curious Lebanese who had been watching the entire event as though it was a matinee.
Shmuel Frenkel continues the narration from his own perspective. He describes how the force was pinned down, with no hope of making it past the intersection. He says he suddenly realized that the weapon he'd been using - a Galil assault rifle - felt inadequate. He had trained his entire military career with an FN MAG machine gun, and now felt incompetent without it. This is illustrated by a shot of him in the ditch, holding an assault rifle that looks absolutely tiny. He turned to his MAG operator and demanded he hand it over. After the soldier protested, Frenkel grabbed the weapon by force.
Ari, now remembering the event, recalls how he saw Frenkel running straight into the junction, firing his weapon in all directions while seemingly dancing. He says he got the impression that Frenkel was essentially showing the Palestinian shooters that he had no intention of ever leaving the junction, demoralizing them. As Frenkel is seen dancing a waltz with his MAG, surrounded by giant posters of Bashir Gemayel hanging from every building, Ari says that at that same time, only a few hundred meters away, the Christian Phalangists were planning their massacre in the Sabra and Shatila camps.
Dead End
Ari returns to the Netherlands to visit Carmi Cna'an again. It is now summer, and the two men are once again smoking marijuana outside on a bench. Ari says the only memory he's still missing is the day of the massacre itself. Carmi confesses that he had always been suspicious of the Christian Phalangists, whom he thought were worshipping Bashir Gemayel like a messiah. He accuses them of having had nearly homo-erotic feelings towards Gemayel, treating him like a super-star as David Bowie was to himself and Ari. As such, he says, the assassination of Bashir Gemayel would've been like someone had murdered "their woman", and it was therefore inevitable that they would avenge his death in some vicious manner or another. Carmi recalls once visiting the "Slaughterhouse", a location in Beirut where the Phalangists would take Palestinian captives to be tortured and mutilated, their bodyparts kept as mementos.
When Carmi asks Ari why he returned to the Netherlands, Ari explains that he still needs to unlock the meaning of the flashback to the nighttime sea scene with the falling stars, and that he's sure Carmi was there with him. This angers Carmi, who denies being there. He incredulously asks who could possibly have been crazy enough to go down to the beach that night.
When Carmi asks Ari why he returned to the Netherlands, Ari explains that he still needs to unlock the meaning of the flashback to the nighttime sea scene with the falling stars, and that he's sure Carmi was there with him. This angers Carmi, who denies being there. He incredulously asks who could possibly have been crazy enough to go down to the beach that night.
The Inner Circle
Ari goes back to Ori Sivan, explaining that he's reached a dead end. He asks Sivan for his interpretation of the nighttime beach dream. Sivan explains that dreams about the sea represent fears and emotions. He says that the Sabra and Shatila massacres are occupying Ari's mind because he was so close to the event. He surmises that Ari's obsession with the massacres is actually a throwback to his deep-seated feelings about the Holocaust - the massacre that Ari's own family had gone through - and that he is looking to resolve his own conflict about himself being part of another massacre. He advises Ari to go learn the facts about the Sabra and Shatila massacres, in the hope that the details would finally unlock Ari's memories of where he was during the event.
Ari interviews Dror Harazi, who commanded a tank overlooking the Sabra and Shatila camps during the massacre. Harazi at first recounts how they simply returned fire against anyone shooting at them from inside the camp. After a while, Phalangists began arriving in trucks, wearing IDF uniforms. After a briefing with Israeli commanders and the Phalangists, the Phalangists began moving into the camp on foot. Harazi explains that he got the impression that they were simply going inside to purge the camps of Palestinian terrorists, after which the IDF would go in and take control of the camps.
Harazi then describes the following morning, when Phalangists started coming out of the camp, escorting a long line of Palestinian civilians - women, children and the elderly - whom they loaded onto trucks and drove off towards the nearby stadium. He recalls the Phalangists yelling at the civilians and firing in the air. Ari inquires whether the tank crew was suspicious at all that something more nefarious was going on. Harazi says that the whole thing didn't seem that much out of the ordinary, because he had been present in previous camp clearings where civilians were called by bullhorns to leave the camp before an attack, and did so voluntarily - under the assumption that anyone left inside was a combatant. He says that this was normal doctrine, intended to reduce civilian casualties during such attacks.
The movie cuts once again to Ron Ben-Yishai, who recounts his experience that day. He recalls driving his jeep to the IDF landing strip on the western side of Beirut, and along the way seeing halftracks full of joyous Phalangists driving past. At the airstrip he met a Colonel friend who shared a rumor that a massacre had been going on inside the camps, and said that his troops had seen trucks full of tortured Palestinians - with crucifixes carved into their chests - driving away from there.
Dror Harazi continues his description of the events, saying that he and his soldiers spotted a Phalangist taking an old man into a house, and then heard shots fired. When the Phalangist re-emerged, he used rudimentary sign language to explain that he tried to force the old man to bow before him, and when the old man refused, the Phalangist executed him. Ari asks Harazi whether there was a point when he and his crew actually realized there was a massacre going on. Harazi says this happened when his tank crew actually saw Phalangists lining up Palestinian civilians against a wall and shooting them all. He says he immediately called his superiors to inform them, but was told that Command was appraised of the situation and were "dealing with it", which Harazi understood to mean that the matter would soon be resolved by the IDF.
Ari asks Harazi where the regional headquarters was. Harazi explains that it was set up on the roof of a very tall building right behind his tank, overlooking the entire camp. The movie visualizes this, and we also see IDF soldiers on that same roof launching illumination flares over the camps throughout that night.
Ari interviews Dror Harazi, who commanded a tank overlooking the Sabra and Shatila camps during the massacre. Harazi at first recounts how they simply returned fire against anyone shooting at them from inside the camp. After a while, Phalangists began arriving in trucks, wearing IDF uniforms. After a briefing with Israeli commanders and the Phalangists, the Phalangists began moving into the camp on foot. Harazi explains that he got the impression that they were simply going inside to purge the camps of Palestinian terrorists, after which the IDF would go in and take control of the camps.
Harazi then describes the following morning, when Phalangists started coming out of the camp, escorting a long line of Palestinian civilians - women, children and the elderly - whom they loaded onto trucks and drove off towards the nearby stadium. He recalls the Phalangists yelling at the civilians and firing in the air. Ari inquires whether the tank crew was suspicious at all that something more nefarious was going on. Harazi says that the whole thing didn't seem that much out of the ordinary, because he had been present in previous camp clearings where civilians were called by bullhorns to leave the camp before an attack, and did so voluntarily - under the assumption that anyone left inside was a combatant. He says that this was normal doctrine, intended to reduce civilian casualties during such attacks.
The movie cuts once again to Ron Ben-Yishai, who recounts his experience that day. He recalls driving his jeep to the IDF landing strip on the western side of Beirut, and along the way seeing halftracks full of joyous Phalangists driving past. At the airstrip he met a Colonel friend who shared a rumor that a massacre had been going on inside the camps, and said that his troops had seen trucks full of tortured Palestinians - with crucifixes carved into their chests - driving away from there.
Dror Harazi continues his description of the events, saying that he and his soldiers spotted a Phalangist taking an old man into a house, and then heard shots fired. When the Phalangist re-emerged, he used rudimentary sign language to explain that he tried to force the old man to bow before him, and when the old man refused, the Phalangist executed him. Ari asks Harazi whether there was a point when he and his crew actually realized there was a massacre going on. Harazi says this happened when his tank crew actually saw Phalangists lining up Palestinian civilians against a wall and shooting them all. He says he immediately called his superiors to inform them, but was told that Command was appraised of the situation and were "dealing with it", which Harazi understood to mean that the matter would soon be resolved by the IDF.
Ari asks Harazi where the regional headquarters was. Harazi explains that it was set up on the roof of a very tall building right behind his tank, overlooking the entire camp. The movie visualizes this, and we also see IDF soldiers on that same roof launching illumination flares over the camps throughout that night.
Unlocking the Truth
That same night, Ben-Yishai and fellow journalist Micha Friedman, who had been sharing an apartment in Ba'abda in south-eastern Beirut, hosted a small get-together with some of the local field commanders. During the dinner, one of the battalion commanders approached Ben-Yishai in private and confided that his men report that a massacre is going on inside the refugee camps - possibly including the same report sent by Harazi. Ben-Yishai asked the commander whether he had seen anything himself, but the commander replied negatively. Ben-Yishai brought the matter up to the other officers present at the dinner and discussed it with them, learning that they had also received similar reports.
Close to midnight, after the officers had left, Ben-Yishai phoned Defence Minister Ariel Sharon directly. He reported the rumors to the Minister, who asked whether Ben-Yishai had witnessed any of it himself. When Ben-Yishai responded that he hadn't, Sharon thanked him for the report, wished him a happy new year and hung up the phone. This surprised Ben-Yishai, who had expected Sharon to at least say he'd check it out.
Back at Ori Sivan's, Ari lays out his understanding of the massacre. He says there were several circles of troops, with the Phalangists in the inner-most circle, carrying out the massacre by their own hands, while surrounded by multiple circles of Israeli troops who simply "watched over them". He expresses shock and frustration about how the Israeli troops in the innermost circle had the most information and still didn't realize that they were watching a genocide. Ori asks Ari which circle he was in, and Ari supposes that he was in the second or third circle, firing mortar flares that —unbeknownst to Ari at the time— probably helped the Phalangists perform the massacre.
Ori finally concludes that this is the reason that Ari's mind is blocking out the massacre: He subconsciously sees himself as directly culpable in the massacre, having been forced to become the Nazi soldier murdering Jews during the Holocaust. He reminds Ari that he didn't take part in the massacre.
Close to midnight, after the officers had left, Ben-Yishai phoned Defence Minister Ariel Sharon directly. He reported the rumors to the Minister, who asked whether Ben-Yishai had witnessed any of it himself. When Ben-Yishai responded that he hadn't, Sharon thanked him for the report, wished him a happy new year and hung up the phone. This surprised Ben-Yishai, who had expected Sharon to at least say he'd check it out.
Back at Ori Sivan's, Ari lays out his understanding of the massacre. He says there were several circles of troops, with the Phalangists in the inner-most circle, carrying out the massacre by their own hands, while surrounded by multiple circles of Israeli troops who simply "watched over them". He expresses shock and frustration about how the Israeli troops in the innermost circle had the most information and still didn't realize that they were watching a genocide. Ori asks Ari which circle he was in, and Ari supposes that he was in the second or third circle, firing mortar flares that —unbeknownst to Ari at the time— probably helped the Phalangists perform the massacre.
Ori finally concludes that this is the reason that Ari's mind is blocking out the massacre: He subconsciously sees himself as directly culpable in the massacre, having been forced to become the Nazi soldier murdering Jews during the Holocaust. He reminds Ari that he didn't take part in the massacre.
Ron Ben-Yishai
We return to Ben-Yishai's retelling of the events. Early the next morning, he woke up and immediately took a jeep directly to the refugee camps. Speaking of the sight of civilians being removed from the camps by the Phalangists, he references the famous photograph of a Jewish child in the Warsaw ghetto, holding his hands up in the air as SS soldiers lead him and other civilians away at gunpoint - to be taken to the extermination camps.
Ben-Yishai says he was going to go to the IDF headquarters to report this immediately, but before he could do so General Amos Yaron arrived on the scene in person. Yaron pulled out a bullhorn, called out to the Phalangists several times to stop the shooting immediately, and then drove away. This effectively ended the massacre, with the Phalangists leaving the area and the Palestinian civilians turning around and walking back into the camps.
Ben-Yishai quickly decided to follow the Palestinians into the camp, immediately seeing rubble strewn everywhere. As he walked past one pile, he suddenly spotted the hand of a small child sticking out of the rubble. Inspecting it closer, he saw the head of a young, dead girl, saying that she instantly reminded him of his own daughter. As Ben-Yishai and his crew ventured further into the camp, they saw bodies lying in the many courtyards, including men, women, and children.
Finally, Ben-Yishai says that the crew turned into a narrow side-alley which was blocked up to chest height with the bodies of young men. His interview ends with him saying that this was the point when he realized that he was looking at an outright massacre.
Ben-Yishai says he was going to go to the IDF headquarters to report this immediately, but before he could do so General Amos Yaron arrived on the scene in person. Yaron pulled out a bullhorn, called out to the Phalangists several times to stop the shooting immediately, and then drove away. This effectively ended the massacre, with the Phalangists leaving the area and the Palestinian civilians turning around and walking back into the camps.
Ben-Yishai quickly decided to follow the Palestinians into the camp, immediately seeing rubble strewn everywhere. As he walked past one pile, he suddenly spotted the hand of a small child sticking out of the rubble. Inspecting it closer, he saw the head of a young, dead girl, saying that she instantly reminded him of his own daughter. As Ben-Yishai and his crew ventured further into the camp, they saw bodies lying in the many courtyards, including men, women, and children.
Finally, Ben-Yishai says that the crew turned into a narrow side-alley which was blocked up to chest height with the bodies of young men. His interview ends with him saying that this was the point when he realized that he was looking at an outright massacre.
Reality
The film returns to the final part of Ari's flashback, but it has been revised now that his memory has finally been unlocked. He hadn't come out of a swim in the sea, but instead has been guarding a checkpoint outside the refugee camps. A stream of wailing women come walking out of the camps past his checkpoint. He is breathing heavily, clearly distressed at what he is seeing. It is at this point that his mind begins to comprehend what has happened, and has already started repressing the memory.
In the final minute of the film, the animation is suddenly replaced with real-life footage - the footage filmed by Ben-Yishai's crew during their initial incursion into the camp. We see the women wailing as they see the corpses of murdered family members and friends. We see many piles of human corpses, lying in pools of blood. The film fades out on a shot of a dead toddler.
In the final minute of the film, the animation is suddenly replaced with real-life footage - the footage filmed by Ben-Yishai's crew during their initial incursion into the camp. We see the women wailing as they see the corpses of murdered family members and friends. We see many piles of human corpses, lying in pools of blood. The film fades out on a shot of a dead toddler.
