Yoga book recoomendations

Good books to read:
Swami Vivekananda: Karma and Bhakti yoga , Raja yoga

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swami_Vivekananda

“Persepolis” on tõsielul baseeruv täispikk joonisfilm, mille režissöörideks on Marjane Satrapi ja Vincent Paronnaud. Naine esitab katkeid oma elust lapsepõlvest 25. eluaastani. Algul ilmus lugu koomiksisarjana Prantsusmaal, pälvides omas ringis palju tähelepanu ja ka auhindu. Filmi esilinastus oli 2007 Cannes’i filmifestivalil, kus võitis publiku preemia.

Filmi-Marjane’i lugu

Filmi narratiiv pole lineaarne, süžee ja faabula ei lange päris kokku. Animatsioon algab üsna pika tiitrite jadaga, kus on palju pildilisi vihjeid ka loo sisule ning Iraanile laiemalt. Seda võib ka omamoodi proloogiks nimetada. Tegevus algab Orly lennujaamas, on kaasaeg või üsna äsjane minevik. Õigepea hakkab peategelane Marji meenutama oma lapsepõlve, pilt muutub must-valgeks, selgub, et on aasta 1978 Teheranis. (Filmis pole ta vanust kordagi täpsustatud, aga filmi looja Marjane sündis aastal 1969.) Lapsena oli ta ergas, revolutsionääridest vanemad ning vanaema kasvatasid teda iseseisvalt mõtlema ja oma arvamust ka välja ütlema, nii sõnades kui tegudes (“Punk is not ded!”). See pole aga range korraga riigis soositud, tema käitumine äratab tähelepanu ning vanemad otsustavad ta saata välismaale, et teda ei hukataks nagu mitmeid nende sugulasi ja sadu tuhandeid iraanlasi. Iraani lennujaamast hüppab süžee korraks taas Orly lennujaama, tagasi raamjutustusse, seejärel jätkub Marji lugu Viinis 1986 mässuliste teismeliseaastatega. Nõukogude Liidu kogemusega inimestele südamelähedaselt mainib ta ka poodlemise mõnusid, mida mõnda aega algul nautis. Marji jutustab oma kohanemisraskustest, korra isegi valetab end prantslaseks. Ta satub punkarite, hipide ja anarhistide seltskonda, armub, pettub, armub taas, pettub veelgi enam, läheb tülli korteriomanikuga, ööbib tänaval, on murtud, igatseb koju, lähebki. Teherani lennujaamas ei tunne vanemad teda algul ära, tüdruk on suureks kasvanud. Taas on lennujaamast korraks kõrvalhüpe raamjutustusse. Kuid ka Iraanis ei leia Marji omale kohta, käib isegi psühholoogi juures. Ent ta võtab end kokku ja läheb ülikooli, armub, üritab kohaneda igapäevaeluga Iraanis, abiellub, ent juba aasta hiljem on õnnetu, lahutab ja pere otsustab ühiselt, et kaasaja Iraan pole tema jaoks. Marji lahkub jäädavalt, seekord Pariisi. Sujuvalt muutub lennujaam värviliseks raamjutustuseks. Seekord ütleb ta taksojuhile enesekindlalt, et on Iraanist. Pilt muutub sujuvalt mustaks, järelkajana on kuulda dialoog lapseeas Marji ja vanaema vahel, kus viimane seletab lapselapsele, kuis ta korjab iga päev jasmiini õisi ning paneb need rinnahoidjasse, et ta lõhnaks koguaeg hästi.

Iraani loo jutustamine

Põhiline, mida terves filmis tehakse, on monoloogide pidamine seda illustreeriva pildi taustal, dialoogi on vähem. Terve film on Orly lennujaamas aegleva Marjane’i jutustus oma minevikust. Ei ole üheselt selge, kellele ta räägib, võib-olla on see siseheitlus kojuigatsusega. Lugudeks on juba mainitud kolm eraldi tervikut, kolm etappi protagonisti elus: lapsepõlv Iraanis, teismeiga Viinis, täsikasvanuiga tagasi kodumaal. Nende lõikude sees on veel omakorda minevikku seletavaid tagasivaateid, mida räägivad Marjile ta sugulased. Kaadritagust jutuvestjat illustreerib pildiline pool. Tekst täiendab kujutatavat, aga lisab juurde vaid vähemtähtsaid detaile. Hiljuti filmi üle pika aja taas vaadates tegin eksperimendi. Tahtsin teada, kui paljust jään ilma teksti kuulamata, subtiitrit lugemata. 20 minutit vaatasin filmi vaikuses, katsin paberiga ekraani alaosa. Pilt rääkis enda eest väga hästi, ilma teksita oli pea kõik arusaadav. Segaseks jäi vaid põhjus, miks vanaema mukitud Marji peale kurjaks saab ja paugutades lahkub ning jäi kuulmata mitu tanki Iraan ja Iraak teineteisel hävitasid. Eksperimendikesest järeldan, et kaadritagust jutuvestjat poleks tegelikult vaja. Arvan, et seda võtet on kasutatud, et lugu oleks üheselt selge, et poleks ebamäärasust ega rohkeid tõlgendusvõimalusi, et võimalikult suurele osale vaatajaskonnast oleks film mugavalt jälgitav. Nö tavavaatajal on lihtsam ka tänu sellele, et kõik räägivad igal pool, ka Iraanis, vaid prantsuse keeles. (Inglisekeelne versioon oli samuti algusest peale plaanis, tegu pole lihtsalt dublaažiga, mõlemas versioonis on häid näiteljaid, kes oma karakteritega loovad kaks erinevat filmi, nagu ütleb Satrapi ise: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6kRiyFb8lRk&feature=channel)

Filmis on puust ja punaselt räägitud Iraani lugu. Justnimelt eelkõige Iraani, mitte Marjane’i enda lugu. Seda on mugav tutvustada koos lapse arenguga: vaataja, kes konteksti ei tunne, on pea samal pulgal väiksese Marjiga. Või veidi “kõrgemal”, lapsele tundub olevat oluline ka see, et tema onu on vangis istunud kauem kui sõbranna sugulane, sest see kõlab kui midagi ägedat.

Kui filmi autor kasutab dialoogi, siis on see värvikas. Eelkõige vanaema karakter, kellest räägin põhjalikumalt veidi hiljem, aga ka näiteks stseen, kus raisakotkastena mõjuvad kaks ülilooritatud naist Marji riietuse läänelikkuse üle nokivad. Veel on olulisel kohal Marji vestlused Jumalaga, kes ilmub tema juurde ikka siis, kui teisiti enam ei jaksa ega oska ning aitab nõu ja jõuga. Ja seda sugugi mitte paatoslikult, vaid kerge huumoriga. Autori jaoks on huumor väga oluline, ta ütleb ühes intervjuus (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TUYV8OHx1OM&feature=related), et nutma on vaatajat palju lihtsam ajada, aga sellel puudub tema jaoks mõte; Satrapi on meeldivalt üllatunud, kui teises maailma otsas naerab inimene filmi vaadates sama koha peal, kui ta isegi.

Filmis on koht, kui jutustatakse ka otse kaamerasse vaadates. 7 mõnelauselist lõigukest järgnevad üksteisele pärast onu Anoush’i kirjeldust revolutsioonist oma noorpõlves. Filmi esimesel vaatamisel ei kerkinudki need väga esile, need aitavad mõnd sündmust ja meeleolu kiiresti ning efektiivselt edasi anda. Aga hetkel tundub, et need küll lisavad mitmekesisust, aga pigem lõhuvad tervikut, killustavad üldpilti.

Omamoodi on veel koht, kus üks Marji sugulastest räägib piinamistest vangis. Pilt sinna aga e hüppa, näeme Marji kodu elutuba, kus laua ümber kõik meest kuulavad. Aga see tekst on nii elav, et ongi palju mõjusam lasta pildil tekkida vaataja peas.

Vanaemad

Vanaemal on filmis väga eriline koht. Ta on särav isiksus, pole kaugeltki suu peale kukkunud. Ka autor ise on intervjuus (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7i9Vs97x7IU&feature=channel) öelnud, et kui on keegi, kes on talle olnud inspiratsiooniallikaks, siis vanaema. Tema olulisusest Marjane’ile näitab ka see, et kui pressikonverentsil ajakirjanik küsib, kui palju on temas väljamõeldut, siis esimese asjana ütleb Marjane, et fílmis on ta malbem kui päris elus (“I cooled her down”), aga siis tekib mõttepaus, muidu voolava jutuga ekstravertne naine on sõnatu, ei leia tabavat väljendit vanaema kohta. Mõned väljendusrikkad käeliigutused hiljem leiab ta sõnad ‘otsekohene’ ja ‘äärmiselt aus’, ‘liigagi aus’; vanaema olevat öelnud välja uskumatuid asju. Just vanaema vari on see, kes tuleb Marjane’i käest aru pärima, kuis too järsku prantslaseks sai, pärast pidi Viinis, kus Marji oma päritolu salgas. Vanaema oli kahe jalaga maa peal, kusjuures ääretult terava huumorisoonega.

Marjane’i vanaemaga seoses meenus mulle üks teine vapustav vana naine. Selleaastasel PÖFFil linastus dokumentaalfilm “Naine viie elevandiga” (režissöör Vadim Jendreyko), mis portreteerib Svetlana Geierit, kes on üle 60 aasta olnud tõlgiks vene keelest saksa keelde. Üüratu põhjalikkusega on ta loonud uued tõlked ka viiest Dostojevki suurteosest, mis tänapäeva kähkukakultuuris mõjuvad eriti süvenenutena. Vanal daamil on terav pilk, temast kiirgab pea sajanditagust hõngu igal liigutusel. Svetlana ei räägi küll, mida ta oma rindadega teeb, et need ikka pringid püsiksid, aga kui ta lõikab köögis sibulat, seletab ta, et sibulal ei ole keskpunkti, sibul paljuneb pungudes ning tema sees on teine väike sibul, nagu Dostojevski teostes on peidus mitu väiksemat lugu. Kui ta triigib põlle, siis ütleb ta, et pole juhus, et sõnad ‘tekst’ ja ‘tekstiil’ pärinevad samast tüvest, mõlemad on kokku põimitud-lõimitud. Kui ta näitab oma ema pilutatud voodilina, sõnab ta, et selle meisterdamiseks on ära loetud kõik kanga lõime- ja koelõngad, hävitatud see struktuur ning taasloodud kaosest uus kord, mis on inimesele vägagi omane käitumine. Filmis jääb ta sõnateravuselt Marjane’i vanaemale küll alla, aga nad mõlemad on daamid selle sõna parimas tähenduses, kellele on oluline (enese)väärikus. Mõlemad on omamoodi särtsu täis.

Pildiline-tehniline pool

Mõne aasta tagusest vaatamisest meenus, et film on must-valge, ma ei mäletanud ei raamjutustuse värve, ega ka kauneid vaheldusrikkaid tekstuure halltoonidega. Seekordsel vaatamisel tundus pilt stiilselt kirju. Minu sõber aga rääkis vastupidisest muljest. Nimelt ootas ta Iraani filmilt midagi palju värvikamat, seega oli visuaalses osas pigem pettunud.

Nagu juba mainitud, on selles animatsioonis pilt enamasti lihtsalt teksti kordaja (või ka vastupidi), film mõjub liikuva illustratsioonina. Kohati on (koomiksi?) pildid kaunilt liikuma pandud, montaaž on läbimõeldud. Ilus on näiteks üleminek alguses raamjutustuselt lapsepõlve, kui väike must-valge Marji jookseb lennujaama. Või näiteks üleminek onu Anoush’i jutustuse merelainetriipudelt Marji tekitriipudele. Selliseid näiteid leiab, võib-olla võiks rohkemgi leida, palju on ka lihtsalt fade out’i.

Mulle meeldis see film juba esimesel vaatamisel. Pärast analüüsimist on see oma lihtsusele vaatamata paeluv ja huvitav.

Visuals of “Fantastic Planet”

"Fantastic Planet"
(France/Czechoslovakia, 1973)
directed by René Laloux, based on the novel "Oms en Série" by Stefan Wul

Visuals/design of “Fantastic Planet” are created by French illustrator, painter, writer and filmmaker Roland Topor (1938 –1997). As soon as he was also a co-sriptwriter – I guess he enriched the script with fantastic landscapes and creatures that are very typical to Topor’s Surrealistic world of his graphic artworks and fits so well to science fiction genre because of a lot of space for fantasy and imagination.

+ nice blog about Topor with many pictures (in French):

http://toporetmoi.over-blog.com

Some examples of Topor’s artworks:

Technique

“Fantastic Planet” is made in cutout technique (cutout animation is a type of stop-motion animation produced by moving 2-dimensional pieces of material such as paper or cloth http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Animation). I assume that drawings are made with ink pen and coloured with watercolours or coloured pencils as most of the Topor’s pieces and with very typical crosshatching that compose the form of his fantastic objects.

"The technique itself is fascinating," wrote The New York Times. "Instead of using the traditional method of drawing on acetate, the ingenious producers have sketched on cut-out and hinged paper. This comparative stiffness of movement, instead of the usual animated flash, gives a dignity and eerie depth to an adaptation by directors René Laloux and Roland Topor of Stefan Wul's novel, 'Oms en série.' The story itself is a sci-fi honey."

http://www.uwec.edu/newsreleases/09/oct/1030FantasticPlanet.htm

Some examples from film „Fantastic Planet“:

Film "Fantastic Planet" visuals craetes atmosphere that also reminds Surrealist painter Giorgio de Chirico deserted landscapes.

+ I foun also another one interesting opinion about "Fantastic Planet" visuals by Chris Justice:

"Finally, the animation techniques used in Fantastic Planet are vital in understanding the evolution of global animation trends. The film exemplifies Laloux’s radical theory that extensive movement and character development do not necessarily coincide with metaphorical graphics in animation. While believing that the latter approach was more purely European and the former more American, Laloux was adept in Fantastic Planet at drawing the line between these two competing schools. Throughout, his graphics often resemble Renaissance or medieval gallery paintings. The compositions are often fixed and static, and movement within each frame is minimal at best. The compositions rely primarily on limited foregrounds, juxtaposed against middle grounds with limited action, coupled with backgrounds that contain minimalistic expressionist objects, figures and images. Graphics abound in symbolic imagery, and it is difficult to watch any scene without being aware of its symbolic and metaphorical potential. Historical and political allegories and not characters drive the movie. As the film unfolds, viewers are drawn more to the situations the characters find themselves in than the characters themselves. The film is filled with paper cutout images animated like hand puppets; the hand that eventually kills the mother Om early in the film is a good example. This style has often been associated with Terry Gilliam's comical Monty Python animations and creates an almost geometric, and therefore rigidly defined, sense of space, unlike the fluid watercolour-like designs of Disney."

(http://archive.sensesofcinema.com/contents/cteq/05/35/fantastic_planet.html)

Fantastic Planet

Time With Bashir

Time in “Waltz with Bashir” could be divided in four groups. I will call these groups – layers, who form the whole time of film.

First layer: Year 2006 main character Ari Folman meets his friend from army service period, in a bar and understands he doesn't remember anything from the 1982 Lebanon War. Here is the point where the action begins. Trying to regain his memory, Ari visits several fellows troopers, psychologists and journalist connected with the war. It's not defined how long did the research last, but I presume it was half of the year. One of the first friends Ari Folman visits is Carmi Cna'an, a war-veteran who now lives in the Netherlands. It's winter when the first visit takes place and a summer time when they meet again and Folman remembers the massacre.

Second layer I call time of 1982 Lebanon War. Though the pictures of war are memories, I consider them to be real reflection of 1982 events in Lebanon. Here is the timeline what actually happened during that war:

Third layer is just few episodes in the film, although I think it is important. I call it the time of dreams. To be more precise, it's the surreal dreams of main character. Most of these dreams are closely related with the memories of the war, just they have no certain time. For example dream of getting out of the sea or swimming on the giant naked woman are never defined in the film, but they depict change of the character.

Fourth layer, that makes the general time of the film, is documentary footage. Video represents the aftermath of the Sabra and Shatila massacre, September 1982 by the Lebanese Forces militia group. This footage is disgusting and outrageous, showing a screaming woman. She shouts "My son, my son" in Arabic, but her words are not subtitled, like it's not irrelevant. This real time footage provoke lots of discussion about depiction of Palestinians in “Waltz with Bashir”. Naira Antoun claims that “they have no names, they don't speak, they are anonymous.” and ”being blown to pieces or lying dead”.

Generally, time in “Waltz with Bashir” is a mosaic of real and unreal, datable and unnameable. Like the genre of the film is contrasting – animation – the soil for illustrating surreal and imaginable things and documentary – pure life.

Sources: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sabra_and_Shatila

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/819200.stm

http://www.jewishsearch.com/article_899.html

http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article10322.shtml

Waltz With Bazir

And from Wikipedia:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Waltz_with_Bashir

Plot summary

In 1982, Ari Folman was a 19-year-old infantry soldier in the Israel Defense Forces. In 2006, he meets with a friend from his army service period, who tells him of the nightmares connected to his experiences from the Lebanon War. Folman is surprised to find that he does not remember a thing from that period. Later that night he has a vision from the night of the Sabra and Shatila massacre, the reality of which he is unable to tell. In his memory, he and his soldier friends are bathing at night by the seaside in Beirut under the light of flares descending over the city. Folman rushes off to meet another friend from his army service, who advises him to discuss it with other people who were in Beirut at the same time in order to understand what happened there and to revive his own memories. Folman converses with friends, a psychologist and the reporter Ron Ben-Yishai who was in Beirut at the time.

The film ends with animation transitioning to actual footage of the aftermath of the Sabra and Shatila massacre.

Waltz With Bazir

http://waltzwithbashir.com/film.html

Synopsis:

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. 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 …

Boaz Rein Buskila:

Not your quintessential accountant, yet his work is his entire world. Therefore, it was obvious the dream about the dogs coming to kill him had to take place right outside the accounting firm in which he is junior partner. Boaz’s request that Ari help him find a solution to his nightmare is a standard pattern in their relationship, a pattern that has been recurring for at least thirty years, as if, according to Boaz’s fixed perception, individuals whose business is fantasy are closer to the real world than those whose business is mathematics. Boaz’s obsession with his dreams and his past is very similar to his obsession with mathematics, statistics, numbers of all types and all things that have one absolute truth and which are devoid of various hues. It is for that same reason, that one absolute image a person of his stature should have of himself, that Boaz refused to be exposed in the film and his story is dubbed by a professional actor. Boaz’s face in the film is a fiction of directing. In fact, Boaz’s addictions are one of the reasons Ari developed the extremely unique format of the film “Waltz with Bashir”.

Ori Sivan:

Undoubtedly Ari’s best friend and the person most close to him after his immediate family. Since their mutual adolescence in Haifa, Ori is Ari’s personal shrink, what one might call a ready made therapist, always available for problems pertaining to love, friendship, trauma and repressions of any kind. This despite the fact that during the day Ori is a highly regarded director of films and TV series in Israel. This friendship that erupted at the age of 13 took an interesting turn when they went to film school together at the Tel Aviv University and jointly directed their first two films “Comfortably Numb” and “Saint Clara”. They collaborate to this day on TV drama series, one of which, “In Treatment”, became a reputable remake on America’s HBO network. Easily evident in “Waltz with Bashir” is the fact that Ori took the term family to the extreme and he is raising five children in a remote settlement in Israel’s western Negev desert.

Carmi Cna'an:

Were Ari and Carmi really closer when they were teenagers as opposed to their current relationship now that they’re in their mid fourties? Were they as cold to each other as detached as they appear in "Waltz With Bashir"? Good question. It is doubtful the double encounter in the film can provide an answer. Sometimes separation of twenty years or more dulls a friendship and is liable to blur all the events that occurred to them when they were youths. Carmi went far. He was a genius student in school, a sure bet to succeed in any path he would choose, especially sciences. He chose the new age option, long before anyone knew it as new age. When you think about it today, it is plain to see that in the mid eighties, Carmi was a pioneer. Enraged, he left everything behind and settled in an ashram in India for many years. He perfected and internalized the so called "light buddhism" that Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh, a famous guru in the city of Pune, orchestrated for the capitalistic western world, and introduced Central Europe to the gospel from India. What today seems like an obvious path for young Israelis after their military service was at the time considered “committing suicide” and Carmi paid for it in the form of a many year break from his family in Israel. But in recent years Carmi has found a renewed interest in all that he abandoned twenty years before. A Dutch wife and three children have kept him far from the country where he was born and perhaps as a result the renewed encounter with Ari caused him discomfort and unease. At the last moment, two days before the first day of filming, Carmi refused to reveal his face in the film and his story is dubbed by a professional actor.

Roni Dayag:

Once, forty years ago to this day, when eight contenders ventured out on their own in small sailboats in a merciless race to circle the world, "The Golden Globe", they were examined by a renowned psychiatrist before and after the race. The psychiatrist used the contradicting term ‘disturbingly normal’ to diagnose the winner of the race, Robin Knox. Johnston, who alone for a year in an eight meter boat no sturdier that a nutshell endured terrifying storms, constant fear of death and schools of sharks hungry for prey. Never the less, Johnston was found so normal and devoid of trauma that he made the psychiatrist who diagnosed him totally lose faith in the profession in which he was considered a genius. Ronny Dayag’s initial reaction upon meeting the researcher of the film “Waltz with Bashir” for a preliminary interview was: “I’ve been waiting for this phone call for twenty two years, for someone to come and record my story”. In every war there are diverse anti heroes, but our Ronny is a “tailor made anti hero”! The man who abandoned the battlefield and swam home in one piece, is a senior nutrition engineer, a doctor of organic chemistry, manager of a huge laboratory at Tnuva, the company that monopolizes the Israeli dairy industry. When the researcher parted with him, totally shocked by his war story, she had but one thing to say about him: he is so normal that I am totally disturbed. The unbelievable story which is concisely conveyed in the film (yet of all the interviewees captures the most time on screen) leaves you deep in thought: how can it be that this man who escaped hell by tooth and nail while death enveloped him came out of the entire affair disturbingly normal. And if indeed he came out in one piece, unruffled, what does that say about us and the small traumas we go through in life which we don’t stop complaining about.

Shmuel Frenkel:

Just before the world premiere of “Waltz with Bashir”, Shmuel Frenkel will compete for the first time in the “Iron Man” competition in Frankfurt, Germany. He will swim 4 kilometers, will bike ride 80 kilometers and will top it off by running a full marathon. All this because a simple triathlon or marathon in steaming hot July is not enough for him anymore. Physical challenges evaporate before his eyes. He considers activities involving physical effort and human mental endurance small change. Frenkel remained in the army many years after he danced the waltz at that cursed junction in West Beirut. He specialized in various martial arts, was Israel’s champion 8 years running in an eccentric martial art known as "Dennis Survival" whereby two competitors essentially bash each other’s brains out until one surrenders. No holds barred! Frenkel is the oldest competitor to ever win the competition and actually started training only after the age of 30. Whoever served in the military with Frenkel is extremely familiar with his wife Miri, who despite strict army regulations was with him throughout his military service, except when he was dispatched on military operations. Somehow, she always found a way to wait for him at the end of the day in his tent, secretly, in the middle of the night, in the most remote locations on the planet. Miri, whom he calls Yoko, was always there. No one figured out how. Incidentally, they are happily married and have five children.

Dror Harazi:

Dror Harazi had one dream in life and that was to be a military general, like his father, like many members of his family, military men. But somehow fate would have it otherwise and Harazi found himself that cruel afternoon at the gates of the Shatila refugee camp. He was at the front line, with the tank squadron he commanded over. And though he did everything he could to alert people to the situation, eventually he became the system’s ultimate victim. The little man, the gatekeeper, the one who is known in Hebrew as the military base sentry, the man who ultimately always pays the price for crimes that men greater than him, much greater than him, are guilty of. Harazi was prematurely retired from the military, with much disgrace, virtually without explanations. It was convenient to blame him, a quiet and passive man who now bears this insult his entire life. It doesn’t let go. If only they would have listened to him, hundreds or thousands of lives would have been spared. Harazi considers his participation in “Waltz with Bashir” a necessity, a cry out, another last attempt to tell his story knowing full well that nothing can now change history.

Ron Ben-Yeshai:

Undoubtedly the greatest and most important Israeli war correspondent of all time, the man who became a genuine legend at the height of his career. Ron Ben-Yishai was wounded three times while covering bloody battles, twice during the War of Attrition in the late 1960s and once in Kosovo. And as if that isn’t enough, he was awarded the Chief of General Staff Medal of Honor, the most honorable citation of bravery granted an Israeli soldier, for being caught in heavy Egyptian bombing while reporting for TV during the Yom Kippur War and single handedly rescuing many injured troops. No doubt, the man is a legend! He is seared into the collective Israeli memory with his forty years of broadcasting, from the Six Day War through all the Israeli wars to date, and his reports from Baghdad while blood curdling events occurred in the backdrop of the broadcast frame. Therefore, it is only natural that Ari remembers him well from West Beirut, walking tall among the bullets, fearless, gazing at hell with eyes open, calm. Supposedly many former Israeli soldiers, throughout too many wars, have the same image of the man. Ron Ben-Yishai paid a high price for the telephone call he made the night he reported to Minister of Defense Arik Sharon on the massacre at refugee camps Sabra and Shatila. Sharon, who preferred to do nothing to stop the massacre that night, never forgot, and for twenty years he made sure that Ron Ben-Yishai would never be promoted to a managerial position at the Israeli National Broadcasting Corps.