David Polonsky

How did this project start for you? Ari (Folman, Director) introduced me to his idea. I was excited by the possibilities of an animated documentary that deals with memory; drawing people’s memories, manufacturing fictitious truths… and I was taken by the story, the unimaginable absurdity of what happened.

Can you talk us through your work? My responsibility was to create the general aesthetic approach of the film, and to draw most of the frames, which were then dismantled for cut-out animation. I was assisted by 4 illustrators. My designs followed the story board, but I had much freedom in fashioning the atmosphere, characters and composition.

An ’animated documentary’, isn’t that a contradiction? As there is no filmed account of the personal stories told in the film, animation is as true, or may be truer, than a filmed re-enactment by actors, or some historic footage with VO narration. All documentaries use suggestive cinematic techniques. Some are successful in creating a guise of reality, in the same way that we come to believe the stories we choose to tell ourselves - our memories.

Maartje Alders