Animated documentary Waltz with Bashir is a thought-provoking, and unsettling, examination of the surreal brutality of war.

Told through a series of flashbacks, the film follows director Ari Foldman's pursuit to rediscover his complete lack of memories from his time serving as a 19-year-old infantry soldier in the Israeli Defence Forces during the 1982 Lebanon War.

After confessing to a close friend about being plagued by nightmares, we learn the dreams are connected to when both men were young soldiers, with the horrors of war leaving Foldman so traumatised he has blocked out the painful details – particularly, the Sabra and Shatila massacres of Palestinian refugees.

The rest of the film takes us on a powerful and poignant journey through Foldman's subconsciousness as he endevours to gather information about his role in the war from colleagues who served with him during the dark period, and a journalist who reported on the atrocities.

By combining comic book illustrations with real life images, Waltz with Bashir expertly highlights the harsh realities and dream-like nature of war.

The impact of which is at its most powerful when the animated action of the aftermath of the massacre cuts to news archive footage of hysterical women and children searching for their loved ones amongst the rubble and carnage.

In another harrowing scene, the anxiety and fear of the teenaged soldiers is hammered home when they bombard an oncoming vehicle with a barrage of bullets out of pure panic, only to discover they have slaughtered parents and their two small children.

Again, it is a recollection that has escaped Foldman's selective memory bank.

The film avoids tackling the complexities and politics of the Lebanon War, preferring to look at how the impact of war scars and pollutes the once innocent young soldiers who end up carrying out the violent acts without fully understanding why.