Quand souffle le vent

There are very few films that attempt to realistically describe life after the bomb. If it is a Hollywood production, there has to be an optimistic ending - take "the day after" with a simple but uplifting message: some will die, there will be personal tragedy, yes - but we'll make it under the guidance of our government.

This film takes a different approach: the format (animated) and the setting (rural England) perfectly match the soothing government messages: build a shelter, keep some food and drink - you'll be alright.

But then the story is continued through to the (very painful) end: there is no more government, there is no more mailman, there is

no more you....

This movie is not fun. It's an amazing movie and a seriously important message but it's not a fun ride. The animation is really cutesy and simple which fits the simplicity of the couple. The couple is really charming due to their normality and naïveté. The live action stuff and animations is also just really nice to look at. This movie can feel a little slow throughout but for the plot it's telling it works really well. With all this being said, it's hard to say I recommend this film as impactful and important as the message is the movie is just so dreary, bleak and kind of horrifying. The way this couple is so unaware of the danger they're in is actually scary to watch. And just the way this story is told is in a very cheery manner but with such horrifying undertones. The biggest issue is it's depressing to a point that it's not fun to watch.

Subjects don't come much bigger than total species extinction and in the mid-80s, the imposing shadows thrown by the superpowers' volatile arsenal of nuclear warheads pretty much blackened the entire planet. With last-grip, nerve-stretched lunacies like Mutually Assured Destruction dominating US and Soviet policies, the standoff also had the vinegary whiff of desperate farce about it. War is hell but at least there are winners. In a nuclear conflict, everybody - and everything - loses. One big bang and we all fall down. Or, in the case of When The Wind Blows, fall-out.

While Mick Jackson's telemovie Threads remains the screen's most potent account of mass panic on apocalypse day, this British to-the-frame adaptation of Raymond Briggs' graphic novella is unquestionably the most humane. Say hello and wave goodbye then, to Jim and Hilda, our naive retired home counties couple who, on hearing of an imminent World War III, set about merrily obeying the ridiculous instructions from government protect and survive pamphlets. They whitewash the windows (to shield the radiation), stock up on supplies (a tin of Christmas pudding) and cheerfully anticipate a Blitz-style cosy-up sipping Olvaltine under Anderson shelters.

At first, it plays out like a black comedy - just as the bomb hits, dim Hilda goes to get the washing in - but as the insidious crackle of fall-out settles and the sickness sets in, the movie reveals its true nature: an unbearably intimate, gently accentuated tragedy with a tenacious pacifist streak. Blending 2D cells with 3D modelling, director Jimmy Murakami is technically adventurous but crucially, his connection to Briggs' material is total. In fact, with its working class nuances, droll dialogue and mundane aura , you sense that if Mike Leigh made cartoons, the results wouldn't be too far from this.

This film is an amazing contrast: its extremely dark subject matter is totally belied by the beautifully-drawn backdrops and sweet cartoon style. As adult animations are so rare this style grabs you at once, and it is impossible not to be gripped. Anyone who doesn't remember the Cold War should note that the advice about the doors and painting the windows white was the true advice at the time. Where this film is so effective is its perfect charicatures of elderly folk determined to keep the British stiff upper lip, with no idea about nuclear weapons. My grandparents are exactly like this couple, I could see my nan also bringing in the washing during the four-minute warning. We never see the couple's son but his refusal to adhere to the government's "Protect & Survive" advice, singing the Tom Lehrer song down the phone to his father, is a far more realistic attitude towards what is about to happen. Living only 12 miles from London when I first saw this film I was inclined to agree with the son (and still do). Although the geopolitical map of the world is different now this is still an immensely valuable film as it shows what the risks were during the Cold War and is a chilling reminder that although the Cold War may be over, the weapons are still here. It could not be more different in presentation to the equally brilliant but far more horrifying Threads - but the message is the same.

This is a film you will never forget. I watched it as a teenager expecting something soppy and sentimental (it was made by some of the same people who made the Snowman, a Christmas tale featuring the chorister Aled Jones).

John Mills is superb as the male character, his voice carries the echoes of his former glories as hero, officer type and all round good guy. With lavish casting, animation and soundtrack the plot is given a painful intensity.

Instead my family were treated to horror of the worst kind. A horror that deals with ordinary comfortable society. The two lovely elderly characters are my grandparents, my neighbours. We see them crumble and disintegrate in the nuclear aftermath. They prepare cheerfully for a nuclear war and wait helplessly in the fallout for a rescue which will never come.

Don't watch it with your parents, you will cry and be reminded about it for years afterwards.