TrueJoshNight Truly Dreadful Film

Laikals The greatest movie ever made..!

Fairaher The film makes a home in your brain and the only cure is to see it again.

Micah Lloyd Excellent characters with emotional depth. My wife, daughter and granddaughter all enjoyed it...and me, too! Very good movie! You won't be disappointed.

Movie_Muse_Reviews A 2D-animated story taking place in the real world with no princesses? A hard sell these days. "The Breadwinner," based on the book by Deborah Ellis, runs completely counter to the CGI-photorealism, elaborate world-building and talking animals of Disney, DreamWorks and Illumination. Yet that's precisely what makes it a pleasure to watch, just not in the absent-minded "how do I entertain my kids for a couple hours?" way. Simply animated, softly spoken and not trying to crack jokes all the time, there's an endearing purity to "The Breadwinner" that becomes rather immediately apparent. The drawing style lack gritty details, and yet the characters are all extremely expressive, especially the big green eyes of protagonist Parvana (Saara Chaudry), a young girl living in Kabul, Afghanistan whose father is jailed by the Taliban for more or less talking back. Of course, losing your patriarch in a strict Muslim patriarchal society in which women must stay indoors or be accompanied by a man (and covered head to toe) is a problem, especially for Parvana, her mother, older sister and baby brother. Without any means to provide for themselves, Parvana disguises herself as a boy to sell goods and reading/writing services at the market, while also trying to make cash on the side to buy information about how she can rescue her father from prison.Interspersed throughout the narrative is Parvana telling a very long, traditional-sounding fairy tale, first to little brother Zaki, then to a girl her age who is also disguised as a boy and lastly to herself. The story of Sulayman, who went on a quest to retrieve his village's precious seeds from the evil Elephant King, gets told in a paper-cut animated style but is actually the most sophisticated element of the movie. One expects the tale of Sulayman to reveal an obvious moral parallel to Parvana's story, but this side narrative has much deeper and complex relationship with the main story.Despite the animation's technical simplicity, director Nora Twomey ("The Secret of Kells") builds an extremely vibrant Kabul. The film is never lacking for setting or context and certainly offers more of an authentic perspective on life in Afghanistan under the Taliban than any contemporary American war film audiences are used to. The realities of living under terrorist rule and being a Muslim woman are also extremely accessible to children Parvana's age (11) and older.Focusing on a traditional story of familial struggle, "The Breadwinner" manages to hit all its emotional marks and immediately root itself in viewers' hearts. It's so genuine, authentic and not flashy, which makes it an ideal tool for the emotionally mature child, not so much the easily distracted, younger variety.~Steven CThanks for reading! Visit Movie Muse Reviews for more

westsideschl "Women should not go outside and attract unnecessary attention. If a woman shows herself, she will be cursed by Islamic sharia, and should never expect to go to heaven." Male Islamic tradition has been "placing the onus on the victim" as an element of female enslavement. Only if you are a boy can you go anywhere. We have the Taliban in the Hindu Kush mountainous region of Afghanistan enforcing that precept. In our story eleven year old Parvana is forced to provide for the family because the father has been jailed. An eleven year old girl with an older sister, infant brother and mom all rely on her to secretly venture into the streets to get food & water for the family under the threat of the Taliban. My only negative thought is to have seen the fabled horse tale (haha) finished as well as that of the father. Animation in the French minimalist style (in this case mostly Irish & Canadian) is great attention to detail. We see the arid dust swirling from the wind; the exhaust of cars; the paleness of the females confined indoors in contrast to our Sun tanned Parvana. Music adds authenticity & movement. Then we have a different animation style to fit still another, and more ancient moral fable within this girl's story. We see the thousands of years of conflict that have been waged in this fulcrum of civilization. Still leaving their remnants of war, which to the children are toys of death. As an aside, it is through the education of females in Afghanistan & similar countries that the equality in being human, a threat to male dominance through sharia, is to be realized which is why the Taliban, ISIS, Al-Qaeda, & Boko Haram kill to prevent it.

SnoopyStyle In Taliban-controlled Kabul, a young girl named Parvana has to sell her best dress on the street with her father Nurullah. He's a former teacher and they're harassed by his former student Idrees turned Taliban. Idrees feels slighted and falsely accuses Nurullah. With her father in prison, Parvana has to dress as a boy to buy food and earn money for the family. Her writer mother is beaten for being in the streets without a male chaperon. Parvana is befriended by Shauzia, another girl who dresses as a boy and mentors her in the ways of the streets. To please her little brother, she tells him stories about a young boy on a quest against the Elephant King.The animation is beautiful. The story is compelling. Parvana is an empathetic character in a real apocalyptic world. The fantasy tale is slow at first but it pays off by intertwining with her real world story. There is a real intensity in the build up and in the climatic reveal. The only drawback is that I hoped for a real Parvana to tell her own story. No matter how sincere the writing and how well the telling, it is in the end a second hand tale.

elizrug I enjoyed this a lot. It is a cartoon version of Osama. I'm not sure it was meant to be, though. If you watch both you can see the similarities and differences. The violence and hatred towards women is shown in The Breadwinner but in a way that isn't as graphic or realistic as in Osama. Because there is violence I don't recommend it for kids younger than 10. I'm actually confused as who the desired audience is. If it's not for kids, then why not show the absolutely horror tht is the Taleban? If it is for kids then why not make it a bit less frightening?