Released at the Toronto film festival last year, comes a little film
from Irish animation studio Cartoon Saloon, co-produced by…Angelina Jolie of
all people. It seems when she’s not wasting time making pointless live action
spinoffs to old Disney animated flicks (looking at you Maleficent), some decent
stuff can come about—that being The Breadwinner, directed by Nora Twomey.
On the surface level it’s vaguely like Marjane Satrapi’s
biographical graphic novel/animated feature Persepolis—I recommend both, by the
way—albeit a fair bit less visceral, though more so than the source material
this one is based off. Both are about the experiences of a young woman under a
stifling sexist Middle Eastern regime—one being the Iranian Republic, and here,
the even worse Afghani Taliban, circa 2001.
The film doesn’t waste much time showcasing the background
here, giving a brief recap of Afghanistan’s history by animated montage, and
then to introducing our main character Parvana and her father. Although the
film isn’t based directly on the experiences of real people from there like
Persepolis was, the voice actors are mostly from or descended there, which
helps give it that little bit more authenticity. In any case, not pulling any
punches in showing the repression of the Taliban, we get emotional hits fast as
Parvana’s father is imprisoned, leading the rest of her family—mother, sisters,
and a baby brother—to fend for themselves in a place where women can’t even
leave the door unsupervised by a male relative.
From there, Parvana goes the Mulan route of disguising
herself as a boy, roaming the streets of Kabul, making friends, and trying to
survive. From there, you’ll notice the striking animation in use here—though
the characters themselves are clearly done by computer modelling, it’s done well
enough to convey the right emotions through expression, gestures in the face,
and so on. The backgrounds I especially liked—Kabul looks dusty but vibrant,
dotted with buildings still battered after decades of war. There’s also a
graveyard of rusting Soviet tanks, deserts dotted by makeshift refineries, and
desert landscapes—all of which blend well together.
Interspersed are segments of a story being told by Parvana,
done in more of a paper cutout style, which are amusing and cutesy—they tie
more directly into the main plotline as it goes along. Perhaps somewhat too on
the nose as it nears the end, but on the other hand, one of the final
revelations does make some of the imagery stand out all the more.
Some people complained about too many subplots, but I didn’t
mind that—one fairly strong side-story is Parvana in her disguise befriending a
less belligerent Taliban member who, as many militants in that group were, is
illiterate, and needs her reading skills. It’s in this story that we get
another solid emotional beat that does help humanize somewhat the closest thing
there is here to an enemy—although it doesn’t shy away from the brutality of
the rest of the regime.
The only real main flaw I find is that while it isn’t
exactly kid-unfriendly, the film does deal with some heavier themes—moreso supposedly
than the book—that might fly over the heads of younger audiences. Sure, they’ll
understand who the bad guys are and the plight of the heroine, but there’s a
lot of crucial moments and some heavier ones nearer the end that are definitely
done with older viewers in mind.
Overall, much like the rest of Cartoon Saloon’s works, The
Breadwinner isn’t going to set the world on fire, but if the subject matter
interests you, I certainly recommend it. A straightforward but relatable story
combined with some neat animation means I might just check it out again later
on.
Comments
Post a Comment