(Zabou Breitman and Éléa Gobbé-Mévellec, 2019, France/Switzerland/Luxembourg/Monaco, 81 minutes)

After kicking around the film festival circuit since its 2019 premiere in the Un Certain Regard sidebar at Cannes, Zabou Breitman and Éléa Gobbé-Mévellec’s The Swallows of Kabul is getting a belated and much deserved theatrical release in the States. Beautifully animated in a watercolor style, here we’re set in 1998 Kabul, under the rule of the Taliban, and following lovers Zunaira (voiced by Zita Hanrot) and Mohsen (Swann Arlaud, Anatomy of a Fall) who are looking for a way out, whether physical or mental. Co-director Breitman is better known in France for her work as an actress, and Gobbé-Mévellec was a character animator on the celebrated film Ernest & Celestine prior to her work from the director’s chair here. With a voice cast that also includes international cinema staple Hiam Abbass.

In French with English subtitles.