This niche animated film is ostensibly about the strength of the little girl Pavana, but in essence it is about the resilience of the entire Afghan nation. This article will explore how the film combines realism and romanticism while using novel narrative techniques to present a positive value orientation. @Little Red Riding Hood's Adventure
Based on Canadian author Deborah Iris's award-winning children's literature, Little Flowers under the Flames of War, The Breadwinner is another masterpiece by the Irish Cartoon Salon Animation Studio. Directed by female director Nora Tomei and produced by Angelina Jolie, the film was nominated for the 90th Academy Award for Best Animation and won the Annie Award for Best Independent Animated Feature, one of the highest honors in the field of animation.
The first thing that attracted me to this film was the movie poster, the fantasy exotic background blended with red and blue colors, a girl, wearing a loose turban, wearing a monochrome blouse, a pair of bright eyes staring ahead, the melancholy blue and warm red in the background set off the girl's vicissitudes of innocence, forming a strong contrast that catches people's eyes. It is undeniable that this is a great animated film that is less expensive and more refined to produce, but the practical significance is far greater than that of "Dream Quest".
The content of the film is very simple and touching, it tells the story of 11-year-old Afghan girl Parwana in the war-torn world, with her wisdom and bravery, after her father was persecuted and imprisoned, the woman dressed as a man to work to earn money to support the family and save her father from prison.
Today, I will expound the charm and deep meaning of this film from three aspects: creative concept, narrative technique and spiritual core, so that the audience can experience the brave and strong spiritual world of Parwana.
<h1 class= "pgc-h-arrow-right" >, adopts the creative concept of combining realism and romanticism, telling the story of an Afghan family from the perspective of the little girl Parwana, making the work full of humanistic care and artistic atmosphere. </h1>
Romanticism and realism are the two most commonly used creative languages in animated films, the former broadening the breadth of animated films horizontally, making the works rich in content and unique artistic beauty, and the elements of realism digging vertically into the depth of animated films, making the works full of deep meaning and humanistic care. The film "The Breadwinner" perfectly combines the two and achieves a high degree of harmony between art and connotation.
(1) The animation method of hand-drawn paper-cuts embodies the creative concept of Romanticism.
In the narrative passage of the opening sequence, which takes place in a fictional space, when Parwana's father tells about national legends and history, the creators show the silhouettes of mountains, buildings, and camels that rely on geometric patterns and contours through paper-cut animation technology, so that they constitute a strong visual impact of chiaroscuro contrast on the semicircular sphere of the ideographic horizon.
In today's diversified forms of animation expression, the creators adhere to the original ecological animation production method of paper-cutting, which reflects the creative concept of animators who do not forget their original intentions. This visual style of Islamic art not only attracted the attention of the audience, but also laid the main tone of the Islamic national aesthetic style.
In Parwana's personal fictional "Suleiman's Story," every character, from the villager to the witch, wears colorful, decorative costumes. In order to emphasize the value and preciousness of the treasures in the story, the high-brightness colors are used and matched with shadows as a background, making the treasures more dazzling visually, thereby enhancing the dramatic tension and viewing effect of the story, further emphasizing the mythological attributes of the plot, and meeting the psychological needs of the viewers.
In addition, whether it is in the picture showing the perspective space, or in the dynamic scene where the red clouds symbolizing the evil forces continue to float past Suleiman's side, the director skillfully uses paper-cut animation technology to show the layering of the space according to different paper-cut arrangements and tonal contrasts, so that the film is full of strong Arab mythology.
In my opinion, it is this style of animation that visually represents Arab art that has successfully created an image of a young hero with a very Islamic national legend, so that the animated images on the screen and the national narrative style are always in a consistent ideographic system. The application of this style not only enhances the artistic appeal of the film, but also gives the director a unique film art style, which not only serves the content of the work, but also allows the viewer to enjoy a different aesthetic experience.
(2) A large number of realistic scenes, colors and film sounds are used to reflect the concept of realism.
Throughout the film, scene realistic perspective processing, color and film sound run through it. The director sets shadows for many of these characters, buildings, and objects, highlights the three-dimensional sense of deep space, and reproduces the realistic situation of war-torn contemporary Afghan society and the poor living conditions of women. Although the film never directly portrays the bloody and cruel war scenes, the shadow of the war and the uneasy atmosphere always pervade the entire city.
The root cause of all the suffering in the film comes from war, which not only leads to chaos in social order, but also directly threatens the safety of everyone's life. For example, Parwana's father was originally a teacher, but because of the war, he became a crippled disabled person; Parwana's brother was originally a teenager with a bright future, but he was forever killed because he picked up the bomb by mistake; the uncle who helped Parwana originally lived happily with his lover, but because of the unfortunate landing mine on the way to visit his family, he was eventually separated from his wife and never saw each other.
The use of color is also an important part of the director's realistic creative concept, and this kind of judgmental language based on humanitarianism conveys to the audience the director's realistic intention to criticize war. There are a lot of scenes of red application in the film, telling the story of the king who is red when history changes, the red eyes when describing the elephant king, and the monster chasing the boy Suleiman is also a ball of red, these hot reds are interspersed in the film, as if the symbol of the war, warm and dazzling, making people feel fear and despair.
In addition, the director also recreates the pain endured by Afghan women through the expression of the film's sound. Whether it is the sound of soldiers beating their mothers in the voice-over, the sound of soldiers beating their mothers, the sounds of metal parts colliding on a telephone pole, or the sound of their mother's cane falling to the ground, all of them are interspersed with the violent background of soldiers beating their mothers. The director's use of sound to express violence avoids the unreality of animation as an ideographic art, making the audience feel as if they are immersed in it.
(3) The selection of children as the first perspective increases the appeal of the film and lays a solid foundation for the construction of the content of the work.
Compared with the ordinary adult perspective, the choice of children's perspective makes the film invisibly have a special tension, children as a vulnerable group in life, the director set it in the film, which greatly increases the intensity of the film's expression, so that the film is more infectious.
In the film, the director portrays Parwana's father and other adult men as the figure of Wei An, which is strongly contrasted with the thin body of the children, creating a stoic and calm character personality, and fixing the emotional tone of his father's love. Although Parwana and Deliva are forced to make a living as men, the bright eyes and light posture designed for them all exude a lively and brisk girlish atmosphere.
In my opinion, these styling designs are highly compatible with the character's personality, and while slightly exaggerated, they avoid becoming symbolic, so that the character's external design and performance language are highly consistent with the tone of the film. The film effectively balances the two creations of realism and romanticism, and in addition to increasing the rationality of the film, it also invisibly plucks the heartstrings of the audience.
<h1 class= "pgc-h-arrow-right" > two, through the story of Parwana dressed as a man to raise a family and save her father, conveys a positive universal value orientation to the audience, fully satisfies the psychological needs of the viewers and inspires them to shape positive values. </h1>
The spiritual core of a film is crucial to the quality of the film. For example, the film "Dream Quest" has a double harvest of word-of-mouth and box office, in addition to benefiting from the mature shooting techniques of the animation production company, the most important reason is that it reflects the positive theme of pursuing dreams and celebrating family affection. The film "The Breadwinner" revolves around the story of Parwana's woman dressing as a man and raising a family and saving her father, which also conveys the following two aspects of universal values to the audience, which resonates with the audience.
(1) The film celebrates the value and power of family and friendship.
At the beginning of the film, Parwana first experienced the dilemma of not being able to purchase food, when buying rice, the rice shop owner found out that she was a girl and yelled at her, "Get out, let your father or brother come", almost caught by a group of hooligans on the way home, and struggled several times before fleeing home in a hurry. Next, I witnessed my mother's bruised wound under the stick. These experiences made Parwana understand the dilemma that women will eventually find it difficult to walk in a country that deprives women of their rights and freedoms, and resolutely decided to cut off their long hair.
Later, in order to survive the whole family, Parwana finally cut off her long hair, put on a white hat, and pretended to be a little boy. Because only in this way can she buy food from the rice shop, work to make money, and even ask around for news to rescue her father.
In my opinion, Parwana's dress as a man and the breadwinner and father are not juxtaposed, but cause and effect. Her courage to dress up as a man comes from family affection. The love for her mother encouraged her to cut her long hair, put on her brother's clothes, and take on the responsibility of taking care of her family; the love for her father supported her to constantly inquire about her father's news and try to rescue her; the love for her brother inspired her to break the inhibitions of her thoughts and soothe her fearful heart with fantasy fairy tales. Ultimately, these forces from affection allowed Parwana to grow rapidly.
In the film, Parwana meets Deliva, who is also dressed as a man, and the two people share each other's secrets because of their similar identities. The identity of the boys allows them to work odd jobs smoothly to earn money, and on the arduous road of work, the two do not forget to take out photos printed with blue seawater, encourage each other, and look forward to the future. Every time the photo appears, it is the moment when their female consciousness awakens, in the face of the cruel reality, the photo is their only spiritual pillar, and friendship guides Parwana to find a way out in the reality of the mystery, the heart to the ocean.
Regardless of Chinese and foreign cultures, family affection and friendship are issues that deserve people's eternal praise. In The Breadwinner, viewers can perceive family and friendship from the cohesion between family and friends, which are powerful drivers of love and courage, and love and courage are like the light in the night and the redemption in suffering, which is extremely precious. It is precisely because the spiritual core contained in family and friendship has a strong social commonality that the film has won the general attention of audiences around the world.
(2) The film affirms the value of knowledge and the significance of education.
Parwana's family lives in kabul, Afghanistan, in the darkness of war. His father once said something like this: "When we have nothing, the story is always remembered." The father who uttered these words was a lame teacher who supported the family by helping others write letters and read letters at the market. He is firmly optimistic in his heart, no matter how chaotic and dark the outside world is, he will always change his ways to tell stories to Parwana, and integrate knowledge and life principles into the story.
He told the story of 11-year-old Parwana that the country used to be a happy, free place where women could not only show their faces at will, but also read and travel around. Parwana's mother was a writer, and the family admired knowledge and insisted that girls read and learn.
In my opinion, Parwana's struggle against the environment presupposes precisely because of the influence of her parents and the knowledge and culture that their parents imparted to her. Although Parwana is in the face of adversity, she can draw courage from learned legends, work to earn money by working with literacy skills, and later get to know and get help from jailers by reading letters for others, all of which reflect the universal value of "knowledge changes destiny".
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" > third, the multi-dimensional space in the narrative blends and contrasts, promotes the development of the storyline in the interlacing, and jointly reveals the main theme of the film, improving the artistry and ornamentation of the film. </h1>
The film adopts the non-linear narrative technique of the layered structure narrative, nesting a fairy tale in the story, forming the narrative structure of the play within a play. Among them, Parwana's story belongs to the real world dimension, and the plot is more in line with social experience, while Suleiman is obviously in the dimension of the fairy tale world, and the experience is more fantastical. The two dimensions of the story occur at the same time and echo each other, forming a unique two-line narrative structure.
The film takes the encounter of The Parwana family as the main line of reality, takes the fairy tale told by Parwana to her brother as the secondary line, the picture lens is interspersed with jumps, the plot is naturally connected and smoothly developed, with the hand-drawn paper-cut style full of national characteristics, showing the audience a very charming artistic effect.
In the main line of reality, the difficulties of life ensued, and the plot in the side line also gradually advanced in line with the progress of the main line plot and the fluctuations of the characters' psychology. Parwana's father was innocently imprisoned, corresponding to the fairy tale in which the elephant king robbed the seeds of the villagers; Parwana disguised as a man to take on the responsibility of supporting the family, corresponding to the fairy tale Suleiman stepped forward to challenge the elephant king to find the seeds; Parwana in the process of rescuing her father from prison, corresponding to the fairy tale Suleiman went through hardships to raise three magic weapons to challenge the elephant king.
At the end of the film, Parwana's anxiety and uneasiness as she waits for her father outside the prison correspond to the thrill of Suleiman's battle against the Elephant King in the fairy tale. Every time a hand-drawn paper cut appears in the side line, without exception, there is a sense of despair, and suleiman's fear in the fairy tale also symbolizes the fear in Parwana's heart.
In my opinion, Parwana's strong and fearless personality is an important factor in supporting and advancing the development of the entire film's story, and the boy of the elephant god and Pavana's good friend are another major support for the development and change of the story. In the end, suleiman in the fairy tale successfully defeated the elephant king and retrieved the seed, and Parwana also overcame her inner fears and successfully rescued her father with courage and wisdom, and achieved family reunion.
In short, the fairy tale and reality in the film are not contradictory, and the two branches of the early stage are like a magnificent symphony, which reaches a climax at the end, revealing the theme of the film: even if the fate is uncertain, it is necessary to dry the tears and continue to move forward in the dark. Face the difficulties head-on, lift the weight lightly, and the truth, goodness and beauty in human nature will eventually win. It is also the echoes in the main and secondary lines that finally compose the most beautiful melody like chords for the film, which greatly improves the artistry and ornamentation of the film.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" > summarize:</h1>
Parwana illuminates the dark reality with love and strength, and this story inspires us while guiding us to explore the courage and wisdom in life. As the film ends, "It makes more sense than to raise the volume." After all, it is rain that moisturizes the flowers to grow, not thunder. ”
The reason why "The Breadwinner" can be made into an in-depth animation film and finally won the highest honor in the field of animation, in addition to integrating humanistic care into animation films, fully combining national elements, and maintaining distinct artistic characteristics, mainly lies in the three aspects discussed in today's article, that is, the creative concept reflected in the film, the narrative technique of virtual reality and the spiritual core with universal value.