By Pamela Pollack-Fremd
SAN DIEGO — The Breadwinner, a beautifully told animation film made by Cartoon Salon, directed by Nora Twomey, based on a novel by the Canadian feminist and peace activist Deborah Ellis, is an emotional and beautiful story about surviving against impossible odds. The film is set in Kabul, Afghanistan in 2001 during a brief period between wars. However, life is not peaceful because of the Taliban rule, and their rule is harsh, inconsistent, and particularly difficult for women.
This film is about a family. The father was a teacher and the mother was a writer. They had two sons and two daughters. The eldest son died. The mother is in poor health and stays home with her baby son and older daughter due to the Taliban’s rules. The father sells whatever he can plus his reading and writing skills at the local market to feed his family. His youngest daughter, Parvana, accompanies her father as he is now disabled. The fact that Parvana is a female out in the world is what gets the family in trouble. The father is arrested and sent to prison; the Taliban rulers do not care how the family will survive without the father/breadwinner. So Parvana cuts her hair, wears boy’s clothes, and goes out into the world to get water, buy food, and carry on her father’s work at the market. She makes sure the family survives. She becomes the breadwinner.
The music and animation is very exotic and engaging. For me this was also a very emotional movie bringing tears to my eyes at times. Parvana tells her baby brother stories to keep him entertained. These stories tell the history of Afghanistan, a beautiful country surrounded by competing Empires. When the Empires forget about Afghanistan, life is peaceful. But too often the Empires fight to control each other and the land in-between. Parvana’s stories also tell her family’s history. At the end of the film, Parvana’s family is alive but separated. One is left wondering how they will ever find each other again.
The Breadwinner will begin showing at the Landmark Theater on Friday, December 1st.
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Pollack-Fremd is a freelance writer and former college-level ESL instructor.