Nora Twomey

Parvana needs to feed her family, and in The Breadwinner (2017) that need determines where the story goes. Nora Twomey makes dressing as a boy a practical necessity, keeping the restrictions on Parvana’s life understandable through the business of a child’s day. We were frightened for her because the household’s next meal cannot wait for those restrictions to change. Saara Chaudry gives her a stubborn, believable voice. Twomey lets us recognise how much Parvana can do without suggesting that she should have to do it.

With The Secret of Kells (2009), co-directed with Tomm Moore, the attraction is more immediately in the drawings. The making of the Book of Kells is rendered in the book’s own style, which gives the film a clear visual purpose. The slight story and rushed ending keep our enthusiasm in check. Twomey subsequently worked as head of story and voice director on Song of the Sea (2014), before The Breadwinner became her first solo feature as director.

Her preference for hand-drawn 2D animation and simple, expressive characters helps keep a story clear. In The Breadwinner, she also trusts young audiences with difficult material, without explaining it as though they cannot follow. The awkward shifts into fantasy are the weakness: they interrupt a daily struggle that is already compelling. We want to stay with Parvana’s practical problems, which says something about how well Twomey has established them.

My Father’s Dragon (2022) continues her work in literary adaptation and character-focused animation. Across her work, children negotiating family and community remain a recurring concern, with imaginative elements never far away. We would welcome more of the confidence she shows when Parvana has an immediate problem to solve and the film stays with it. Begin with The Breadwinner, but do not mistake animation for a promise of a comfortable evening.