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12 maltatoday | SUNDAY • 30 JUNE 2019 FILM FILM UNSURPRISINGLY sweeping up the Audience Award at this year's edition of the Valletta Film Festival – whose votes were cast after each film, with viewers giv- en a leaflet on entry that they'd tear to indicate their preferred rating – The Swallows of Kabul is a richly accomplished feat in- deed, boasting an enchantingly wrenching lyricism in both nar- rative and visual dimension, but never eschewing psychological depth and political urgency. Formerly a soldier, Atiq (Si- mon Abkarian) is now one of the guards on shift at the Kabul pris- on, where supposed criminals are kept prior to execution by the Taliban regime. To compound the drudgery of his existence, his wife Mussarat (Hiam Abbass) has been diagnosed with can- cer, which, in turn, compounds her own sense of guilt at being a 'burden' to her husband – she was already too old when they married, by the standards of the stifling and sexist social expecta- tions they all operate under. But the younger, more intel- lectually-inclined couple of Zu- naira (Zita Hanrot) and Mohsen (Swann Arlaud) take pleasure in flouting these same expecta- tions. Entertaining notions of one day leaving what has become a wretched, totalitarian hellhole, the pair are eventually brought to heel by the regime, in a trajectory that eventually finds them col- liding with Atiq's own troubled journey. Written and directed by Zabou Breitman and Eléa Gobé Mével- lec from the novel by Algerian writer Yasmina Khadra (a pen name for Mohammed Moulesse- houl, adopted to eschew military censorship), the ensuing French- language film actually has the overall feel of some of that coun- try's more accomplished bande dessinée: the Francophone take on the comic book genre which as a rule tends to take a broader and subtler sweep in both style and subject matter. Stunning but un-showy wa- tercolour-style animation grabs your attention from the first frame, the sandy mid-tones of dusty, sun-drenched Afghani- stan a deceptive balm for the hard-to-swallow realities that fol- low soon after. The mass stoning of a woman branded as a pros- titute immediately signals that the relatively serene marketplace scene that introduces us to the village was a ruse, a false prom- ise of serenity: much like the op- pressive rule of the Taliban that holds sway over the city – Khad- ra's novel was first published in French in 2002 – the prevailing mood of 'quietly getting along' is revealed to be buttressed by the most inhumane mechanisms. But this revelation comes to us in subtle, leisurely – and dis- quietingly – unfolding layers, never allowing for any histrion- ics to coarsely crack the edifice of this rich, mature work. Atiq's interactions with his colleagues expose the banality of evil at play within the regime, where execu- tions are show-pieces branded as 'nice' appetisers ahead of a sport- ing events, where bored guards shuffle in and out of prison shifts, stealing a cigarette break here and there, and where side-jobs dealing drugs for the Taliban are presented as a clandestine but nonetheless viable option to earn some extra cash. Hope is elusive in this world for obvious reasons, and it is hard- won as much as it is ephemeral. The journey towards it, nonethe- less, makes for a rewarding arc, and it is animated into being by the female characters, who are relegated to the margins but ul- timately succeed in performing their own acts of quiet resistance. All this while Atiq remains our erstwhile protagonist – problem- atic and fully implicit in the re- gime, but one whose conscience still shades and shapes his ac- tions, and whose inner contra- dictions reach a dangerous point of reconciliation after he comes face to face with the beautiful, re- bellious Zunaira. As much of a hard watch as it is easy on the eye, The Swallows of Kabul is a deeply worthy explora- tion of religious fundamentalism and its effects on both the indi- vidual psyche and the fabric of society. Winner of the Valletta Film Festival's Audience Award, Zabou Breitman's and Eléa Gobé Mévellec's adaptation of Yasmina Khadra's novel is a beautifully animated journey of harrowing complexity LIBERATION FEDERATION GENERATION GESTATION DEVASTATION ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ The verdict Rendered in a gorgeous ani- mated style reminiscent of watercolour painting, The Swallows of Kabul belies the inherent brutality of its con- text with a finely woven lyri- cism, offering an olive branch of hope for the complex cast of characters whose fates in- tersect in Taliban-occupied Kabul. The Swallows of Kabul was screened as part of the Val- letta Film Festival on June 18 and 21 at Spazju Kreattiv Cinema at St James Cavalier. It is the winner of the festival's Audience Award. Teodor Reljic ★ ★ ★ ★ T H E S WA L LO W S O F K A B U L ( T B C ) Prisons within prisons Prison guard Atiq (voiced by Simon Abkarian) gazes on a highly illegal graffito of the free-spirited Zunaira (Zita Hanrot) as their paths unpredictably intersect in Taliban- occupied Kabul