Director Zabou Breitman & Eléa Gobbé-Mévellec
Starring Simon Abkarian, Zita Hanrot, Swann Arlaud
Rated M
Score 5/6

Summer 1998, Kabul in ruins is occupied by the Taliban. In love despite the daily violence and misery, Mohsen and Zunaira want to believe in the future. But a senseless act by Mohsen will upset their lives forever.

Okay, apparently The Swallows of Kabul was adapted from a novel The Swallows of Kabul by Algerian writer Yasmina Khadra. It was originally written and published in French. I suppose the other thing that you might need to know before heading into this is it might not be the best of movies if your feeling a little depressed.

I adored the animation style used here and I knew that when I saw the trailer that I had to watch this, The Swallows of Kabul is probably the second animated movie that I have watched in the past three years that has had animation style that seems to stand so far apart from mainstream animation styles. I would recommend that if you get the opportunity you should try and watch this movie on a larger screener so you can appreciate the beauty of the animation. The Swallows is equal parts beautiful, bleak and above all else heartfelt.

This has a very slow deliberate pacing (much like reality but beholden to a 90 minute runtime) and because I am not overly familiar with French animation, I will admit that I found myself getting lost a few times because of the tones of the voice actors’ voices and having to rewind the movie a couple of times so I could find my way again with he story and yes i just might have to take a look at some more animated movies.

Supplied: Filmink

Supplied: Filmink

Supplied: Filmink