My Sunny Maad

This beautiful animated film, by Czech director Michaela Pavlátová , provides a striking portrait of family life in Afghanistan before the 2021 Taliban takeover. The central character, Herra, is a Czech student who falls in love with an Afghan student, marries and joins his extended family in Kabul. She is shocked and saddened by the restrictions imposed on women and girls. Even though her husband, Nazir, is more liberal than other family members (apart from the wise, tolerant grandfather), Herra has to conform to the family's religious and social norms. Unable to produce a child, she and Nazir adopt a strange-looking foundling, little Maad, who becomes an increase influence on the family's life as the film progresses.

The animation is beautifully drawn, with clear-cut characters and dramatic views of Kabul street life. There is a gorgeous fantasy scene where Herra's rebellious niece, races through Kabul with other girls, hair flowing freed from the ubiquitous headscarf. And Maad, who despite the film's title, looks desperately sad throughout except when, hidden in a burkha, he dashes about shouting "I'm invisible!" Nazir and Herra find work with the American forces and a medical NGO respectively and the film shows the culture clash between those providing Western "support" and the Afghan cultural norms. Herra tries hard to live within those norms but the film shows a depressing picture of the indignities created by those norms, with young girls forced into early marriage and wives told that they are owned by their husbands - and this in Kabul before the American withdrawal and Taliban takeover in 2021.

Thanks to BFI for releasing and streaming this important film. It makes an interesting comparison with the 2017 animation, also Afghanistan-based, The Breadwinner.