Aircraft Productions and Cartoon Saloon announce a major co-production deal to adapt the award-winning novel ‘The Breadwinner,’ written by Deborah Ellis, as an animated feature film.
Ireland’s Cartoon Saloon is teaming up with independent production company Air Productions to adapt the award-winning novel “The Breadwinner,” written by Deborah Ellis, as an animated feature film.
The Breadwinner is the story of Parvana, a young girl living under the Taliban regime in Afghanistan who must disguise herself as a boy and become the breadwinner of the family when her father is unfairly imprisoned for being an intellectual. It's a wonderful tale of self-empowerment and imagination in the face of oppression -- celebrating the undiscovered culture and beauty of Afghanistan (in our estimation the first animated feature film to do so). The book has been in print for over 10 years and is now recommended reading for middle school students in the US, Canada and in Europe.
The film will be directed by Nora Towmey from Cartoon Saloon, co-director of the Academy Award-nominated Feature The Secret of Kells and co-director of the multiple award-winning shorts From Darkness and Cuilin Dualach (Backwards Boy). The screenplay is by Anita Doron whose credits include the award winning short films Not a Fish Story and Elliot Smelliot and feature films The End of Silence starring Sarah Harmer and The Lesser Blessed, written and directed by Anita, which won the American Indian Movie Award and was nominated for a Genie Award.
The Breadwinner will be produced in Ireland and Canada and expects to go into production before the end of the year and development work on the project is being assisted by the Telefilm Canada and the Irish Film Board.
Source: Cartoon Saloon
Formerly Editor-in-Chief of Animation World Network, Jennifer Wolfe has worked in the Media & Entertainment industry as a writer and PR professional since 2003.
