David Polonsky

Last year, a cartoon film "Waltz with Bashir" was shown at the Cannes Film Festival. Spectacular in the subject, difficult in execution. But, surprisingly, this work touches, even if you are not at all interested in the Middle Eastern conflicts.

The film received the Association of Film Critics of the Golden Globe, the award in the category "Best Foreign Film" on British Independent Film Awards in 2008 and the Grand Prix of the IX International Film Filmex Film Festival. The film is translated into 9 languages ​​of the world.

He was conceived as an animated manifesto against the cruelty of war. And this function, believe me, he performs in full. The director of the painting by Ari Folman recreated the memoirs of one of the participants in the Israeli invasion of Lebanon in 1982 . The waltz with Bashir is the hero’s attempt to comprehend obviously deprived of meaning, to recall the horror of hostilities in order to leave them in the past.

Film trailer:

On June 11, this film was opened by the Israeli cinema festival , and on the eve we met with the art director of this film- David Polonsky .

David for the second time in Moscow. And the second time - in the summer. "I remember this to Moscow, hot as at home, in Israel." David himself is from Kyiv, and is quite decent in Russian.

Even before the conversation, one of the curators of the festival with a huge canvas came up to him. Since you are a multiplier, be a kind autograph in all form - with illustrations.

It turned out - a 35 mm cinema collects such large -format autographs of all its unusual guests.

The dog’s drawing as an autograph is a very inclicable story for Polonsky. Pursuing the protagonist, they constantly arise in the film. The image of the pursuing past. David himself is now pursuing journalists everywhere - the film caused such a resonance that they began to talk about the emergence of a new style in animation.

"One of the main films of the year is the discovery of a new documentary animated genre. The director, who himself has such painful experience, records the testimonies of the former layouts who fought in the 80s in Lebanon, and transfers them to stories, often pulled out of the depths of the perconscious, into the drawn images" Andrei Plakhov, "Kommersant-Weekend"

But first of all, the topic itself caused the discussion: the film is praised and brutally scolded. In Lebanon in general - banned.

A lot of your work was discussed, a very difficult topic. And you generally counted on such a reaction, such a task stood?

The idea fully belongs to Ari Folman - he came to me with the already written script. Therefore, no, such a task did not stand before me. We tried to just make a good movie.

Have you been hooked on the idea or a chance to make a full -length animated film?

Both that and the other. Although, first of all, the topic is still. This is such a very juicy topic - other people's memories. But to make a full -length animated film - this opportunity falls in Israel very rarely. The last animated film was made with us in 1962.

Was it hard to visualize this story?

Not easy, but it was very interesting. The process itself was difficult - it took four and a half years.

Classical animation?

Not really. We did not have money for classical animation. All drawings are two -dimensional. We were forced to develop our technology, since there was no means. This is a Cut-out animation, do you know this? Well, like in South Park. Or in the Hedgehog in the fog. We cut out some figures and moved them along the drawn background, not drawing every frame. We will not be so anymore.

Difficult?

Especially for animators. It was very difficult, it was a very limited technique, inanimate.

When you tried to get out of the situation, you relied on someone else's experience?

Such a decision in terms of technology came because we had a common experience working with these programs - everything was done in Flash. It was easier for us to use something familiar and cheap.

Yes! Many were very surprised to learn that you worked in Flash. How is it at all?

Well, like this (laughs). It turns out that it is possible.

Can you in detail on your fingers to explain the process of creating a film?

It began with the fact that Ari made a film 90 minutes, Talking Heads, talking with witnesses of events. And on the basis of this, we began to build the sequence of the cartoon. I selected Reference very carefully, real photos of the places. I scanned them, drawed with a pencil, then processed them in Photoshop. As I said, it was difficult with the figures - we worked with them in Flash, divided into hundreds of small pieces and then, moving them, created the effect of movement.

But continue in this style ...

We will not! Although now we are starting work on a new film and it will also be limited animation.

With Folman?

With Folman. This will be the adaptation of Stanislav Lem, like it ... Futurological Congress.

Well, this is such a more peaceful topic.

Well, yes - there are no Jews, there are no Arabs ... (laughs)

Little money, little resources, and the result was a recognition - the nomination for Oscar, Golden Globe. Dumbfounded?

Absolutely. It seems to me that we still have not digested. A year has passed since the premiere in Cannes - I will tell you, this is very strange. As if I opened the door of my apartment in Tel Aviv and ended up in Cannes. Where is the corridor? Too sharply. Not that I complain, of course.

Whose reaction was the most unexpected? I heard that despite the prohibitions, you managed to show the film in Beirut in a closed show for 90 people.

Oh yes, it was very important for me. For me, the reaction of the Arabs was generally curious. In France, I met the editor of the publishing house, which released a story in the Graphic Novel format. It turned out that her family fled from Lebanon a year after the invasion of the Israeli troops. And we talked for a long time, she really liked the film, as it turned out. It was so important for me to exactly convey some things, and she-remembers it all from childhood. And I guessed. And when she left, they told me that she had lost her parents in this war. For some reason it hurt me very much.

Well, the film is about getting rid of the cargo of the past, from these metaphorical dogs. By the way, why dogs?

And it was. In a dream of a man who became the prototype of the protagonist, everything was as we described in the film. Although, the original dream is even worse. There, dogs still burst into the house and deal with everyone who is there. He dreamed of him every day, he stopped sleeping, lost his job, his wife left. All life is a slope because of sleep.

And how did you manage to achieve this oppressive atmosphere in the cartoon? In addition to the topic, complex, the cartoon is very suppressed.

It was both simple and difficult. Just in the sense that if you have a lot of black - it's sad, right? But it was difficult to find some exact details, colors. Intuitive. Something from memory. For example, this yellow color, which is a lot, it is from memories. I grew up in the north of Israel, in Haifa, and the boy often watched maneuvers. And all these lighting bombs, all this looked like that, dirty yellow, for the whole sky.

That is, from personal experience, memories, you also took some things.

It is necessary. Even if you recreate someone else's memory, you need to look for parallels in yourself. For example, this armored car in the film, remember? When I watched the photo chronicle, I realized that it is very similar to what I saw more than once on the way from Haifa to Tel Aviv. This is definitely a scene from my childhood. Each time I was looking for such correspondences.

I would like to work with some large studio?

I do not know, there have been no proposals yet (sad laughter). There is a Pixar studio, amazing do things. But too much the budget for me is a little scary.

You thought so many moves precisely because of the lack of funds.

Yes, it helps a lot. Scary when everything is possible.

What is your favorite cartoon?

"Hedgehog in the fog." (thinks). Yes, “Hedgehog in the fog”, perhaps. I also really like Hayao Miyadzaki - “Princess Mononoka”, “Directed by Ghosts”, “My neighbor Totoro”.

Do not want to draw a childhood story?

And you know, in general, my main activity is an illustration of children's books. I love Baron Munchausen, I would very much like to do it. I illustrated him and even invented new stories about him - so he understands me.

Have you always wanted to draw?

Oh yes, drew from childhood. Always.

And what, there were no other thoughts?

Well, I really loved to draw beetles in childhood. Could become an entomologist.

The film is released on June 18.

PS I managed to see the film exactly a year ago in Paris. The name did not say anything to me. My good friend Ben Juda, an inexorable talker, with burning eyes assured that this was a very important movie. He told me about 40 minutes about the conflict in Lebanon and the cartoon itself. So, the inexorable talker Ben Juda after watching the “Waltz ...” came out in complete silence from the cinema and did not talk for an hour. Only smoked indecently a lot. This is a conversation about the psychological impact of the film.

Photo: Kalabin Alexey