Les Hirondelles de Kaboul

The animation in Les Hirondelles de Kaboul is used in a completely non-conceptual manner solely as superficial gilding without visual ideas or poetics. With its shallow appeal and watercolour blurriness, it further trivialises the entire narrative. In so doing, it directly points out the superficial, calculated nature of the film, which relies on toothless melodrama and a festival-gratifying theme. I can’t tell if it’s a deviation of the adaptation or if it was already present in the original source work, but Les Hirondelles de Kaboul is not a pleasant surprise with its optics and story. Instead of the anticipated narrative about the fate of women in a society controlled by the Taliban, the story crystallises into an absurd, whinging melodrama about a guy who gripes about the Taliban, or rather one of its capos, because he can’t enjoy a romance with a woman he has a crush on because he saw her without her burqa. Women are depicted here as either selfless wives with a romantic understanding for the protagonist’s philandering thoughts or as ethereal beauties representing absurd conservative variations of manic pixie dream girls. (19.05.2019)

The Swallows of Kabul depicts the injustices and horrors under Taliban rule, and how people behave and change under such a movement and circumstances. The story revolves around two couples, the prison guard Atiq and his dying wife Mussarat represent outdated thinking and conformity. In contrast, the young couple Mohsen and Zunaira represent youth, courage, the desire for change for the better and the longing for freedom – like swallows, beautiful symbolism. In such a cruel world, however, "no sun can resist the night" and no one is entirely blameless, which then triggers the story's central plot. Even pure souls can sometimes slip away, and conversely, lost ones can be found again. This film benefits greatly from its beautiful watercolour animation, it doesn't diminish the cruelty or the seriousness of the action, but it softens exactly what would be too harsh in a feature film. (10.02.2020)

A touching story from rugged Afghanistan, bound by traditions and plagued by constant armed conflicts, where swallows presumably symbolize the longed-for freedom. I was very unpleasantly surprised to find that even the eye-pleasing water color animation could not mitigate the monstrosity of some of the human acts shown here. (85%) (30.03.2021)