The Breadwinner

Parvana is an 11-year-old girl who lives in Kabul under the Taliban's Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan (1996–2001). Her father, Nurullah, is a former school teacher who became a hawker after losing his left leg in the Soviet–Afghan War. One day, during supper, he is unjustly arrested after a volatile young Taliban thug, Idrees, thinks he insulted him earlier while the two were selling goods in the market. Because the Taliban forbids women from going out without a male relative, Parvana's family is left without the means to support themselves, as her elder brother Sulayman died years ago, leaving her, her mother Fattema, her elder sister Soraya, and her youngest infant brother Zaki. When Parvana and her mother try to go to the prison to appeal Nurullah's arrest, a thug beats Fattema and threatens to arrest them if they go outside again. Parvana comforts Zaki by telling the story of a boy on a quest to retrieve his village's seeds from the evil Elephant King.