The Breadwinner

From the creators of Academy Award nominees Song of the Sea and The Secret of Kells, comes another beautifully animated tale of one girl’s extraordinary journey to save her family.

Based on the worldwide bestseller by Deborah Ellis, Parvana (Saara Chaudry) is an 11-year-old girl in Afghanistan, raised during the Taliban regime. Her father, Nurullah (Ali Badshah) is viewed as subversive due to teaching his daughters their country’s history, and how to read. One night the Taliban come to their door and cart him away to prison on trumped up charges, leaving only Parvana, and her mother, sister and baby brother in the house. Women aren’t allowed to leave the house unchaperoned, so Parvana has no choice but to risk masquerading as a boy in order to sell things in the market and buy food. However, it is not long before change is in the air, and Parvana knows that she has to find her father and get him released, before he is imprisoned forever… Or worse.

The setting may be bleak, and the film doesn’t shy away from showing imprisonment, abductions, beatings, executions and brutal repression of women. However, Parvana has courage and persistence and keeps her sense of humour, which stops the film getting too grim. As strange as it sounds, the film is actually quite uplifting, and about the power of stories to liberate and sustain hope; and what people will overcome for the ones they love.

Natalie Tyldesley-Marshall