The heroine of the latest Cartoon Saloon production is called Parvana. She’s eleven years old and lives with her family in a tiny flat in the Afghan city of Kabul. The Taliban dictate the law. And they dictate that Parvana’s father, a man and therefore the only member of the family allowed to be active, must be arrested. So how and where to organise the money to survive when the breadwinner is in prison? Parvana decides to masquerade as a boy … “The Breadwinner” exemplifies Cartoon Saloon’s distinctive style: unusual places and protagonists serve as a source of inspiration for a specific attitude towards the world – through narrative and design, focused on today.

Annegret Richter