11-year-old Parvana (Saara Chaudry) lives in war-torn Kabul, Afghanistan under Taliban rule with her widowed mother Fatema (Laara Sadiq), her elder sister Saraya (Shaista Latif) and baby brother Zaki, whom she frequently regales with fantastical stories. Her elder brother Sulayman (Noorin Gulamgaus) has been killed in the conflict and her father Nurullah (Ali Badshah) has been wrongfully imprisoned following a misunderstanding with volatile young Taliban member Idrees (Gulamgaus again), leaving Parvana's family without an adult male relative. This means they're unable to support themselves as women and girls are banned from going outside. Therefore after one failed attempt to do just that, Parvana tries to do so again, this time disguised as a boy, her "nephew" Aatish, to find help for her and her family. This ploy works, scoring her food and money, so naturally she continues it, taking a quest to free her father from his prison, with the help of Shauzia (Soma Bhatia), another girl disguising herself as a boy, whom Parvana meets en route.
Based on Deborah Ellis' 2000 novel of the same name, the 2017 Best Animated Feature Oscar nominee The Breadwinner is a stunningly insightful, sympathetic and respectful depiction of Afghani, especially Afghani female, life under the Taliban, brought to life with a striking aesthetic that feels like a traditional and stop-motion animation hybrid, with a vivid colour and detail scheme to boot. Irish animation director Nora Twomey, working with Ellis' and Anita Doron's screenplay and even Angelina Jolie as an executive producer, approaches this very delicate and culturally specific narrative with complete objectivity, curiosity and patience, all the while keeping a firm grip on the animation's continuity and flow without lacking a sense of playfulness where appropriate (particularly in the storytime scenes which, come to think it, add another enjoyable narrative layer themselves). Enhancing all this are Sheldon Lisoy's photography, Garragh Byrne's editing and particularly Jeff and Mychael Danna's score.
It's maybe not as moving as it could, or should, have been, but then again it's a family film seeking to explore a very delicate and topical subject. Nonetheless, The Breadwinner achieves that balancing act and also proved quite thought-provoking for me. I should also salute Netflix and Universal Pictures, to US companies, for being willing to distribute a film about this subject. The Breadwinner is, well, a winner.
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