The Breadwinner review: Unmissable Oscar-nominated animation.
The Breadwinner review by Freda Cooper.
The Breadwinner review
Through western eyes, it’s hard to believe that, in the so-called modern world, a place like this existed – and still does. A place where women were forbidden from going anywhere unaccompanied – by a man, of course – and where they had to cover their faces completely. This is Taliban controlled Kabul in 2001, the setting for Nora Twomey’s Oscar-nominated animation The Breadwinner, the portrait of a tight-knit family under pressure at just about every turn.
Their youngest daughter, Parvana, is just 11. Her father was a teacher until he lost a leg in recent fighting and now the two of them try to support the family (mother, older sister, toddler brother) by selling family possessions at the market. But the Taliban rules with a combination of personal spite and an iron fist and when the father arrested and thrown into prison, the family’s situation becomes desperate. The only solution, as Parvana sees it, is for her to cut her hair and disguise herself as a boy, so she can earn money to keep them all going. What she doesn’t expect is the total freedom she has in the war-torn city. Now the main breadwinner, she’s still in great danger on the streets of Kabul, especially when she sets her sights on freeing her father.
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It’s a harsh, unforgiving environment, whether inside the city or out in the desert and it’s hardly changed over the centuries. The whistle-stop tour of Afghan history shows a turbulent past, either because of invaders or wars, civil and otherwise. And rusting tanks half buried in the sand bear witness to more recent conflicts. But the film’s focus is very much on the suffering of ordinary people during the wars and, indeed, the so-called peace. On a day to day level, they survive on rice with a few raisins, they fetch water in rusty buckets or any other container they can find and the threat of military strikes – and full-blown war itself – is never far away.
The Breadwinner review
Twomey and her animation team have produced a visual feast. Contemporary Kabul and the lives of Parvana’s family are depicted with strong, stunningly clear artistry, sometimes stylised, sometimes so realistic that you have to look twice to be sure that it really is animation. But there’s another side. The power of stories to fire the imagination, the spirit and to bring people together, is one of the film’s major themes. Parvana’s father has passed on the storytelling tradition to his intelligent daughter and her version of an age-old story, about the Elephant King, keeps her little brother entertained. The tale weaves in and out of the main narrative but in a totally different visual style, this time cut-out animation, which bears a striking resemblance to ancient puppetry. As well as reinforcing the difference between the primary story and the fantasy element, it’s also a respectful nod to Afghan culture.
The Breadwinner is an inspiring and profoundly moving depiction of a family determined to stay together despite the odds – and they are huge, if not insurmountable, at times. Yet it doesn’t shy away from the tougher moments – women physically “punished” for the smallest of reasons, Parvana’s older sister given up for marriage to save the family, the omnipresent menace of the Taliban. Parvana starts the film as a child, but her desire to keep the family together and defy the suffocating restrictions imposed on her, means that she ends it as someone different, liberated not just by her change in appearance but by taking her future into her own hands. The underlying note of hope, for a world where women are no longer oppressed, combined with the devotion and love that holds her family together, makes this an irresistible cinematic experience.
The Breadwinner review by Freda Cooper.
The Breadwinner is released in the UK on Friday, 25 May.
