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Despite its visual appeal, the characters in Czech animator Michaela Pavlátová’s clash-of-values family drama struggle to get past sorrowful stereotypes

Post-Taliban Kabul is seen through the eyes of a Czech bride in this new film from acclaimed animation director Michaela Pavlátová, who was Oscar nominated in 1993 for her short film Words Words Words. Adapted from a novel by war journalist Petra Procházková, the Golden Globe-nominated film boasts striking visuals, but lacks the kind of emotional authenticity that would elevate it beyond a sob story.

When Herra meets Nazir during their university days in the Czech Republic, it is love at first sight. Their relationship leads Herra to Afghanistan where the pair marry and live with Nazir’s family. The culture shock comes swift: Herra has a difficult time adjusting to her stay-at-home existence and the harassment that she endures as a western woman in Kabul. While Nazir’s grandfather is liberal and understanding,...

A Czech woman married into a working-class Afghan family provides a nuanced perspective on life in Kabul in the interregnum between Taliban rule in the animated drama “My Sunny Maad,” from director Michaela Pavlátová. Based on a novel by the Czech investigative journalist Petra Procházková, it sensitively portrays the complex environment of Kabul in the second decade of the 21st century. And it feels eerily prescient in the way it captures the ambivalent feelings expressed by many Afghanis toward the West. Current events in Afghanistan as well as the surge of interest in the Danish animated film “Flee” should spark extra desire to see this strong, humanistic film, which nabbed the jury prize in Annecy.

From the opening moments in which the film enters the window of an Afghan house, we see things through the point of view and savvy narration of blond, gray-eyed Herra (voiced by Zuzana Stivínová). She...

A team of more than 30 animators from three countries is working on the movie, which is being directed by Michaela Pavlátová. Czech director Michaela Pavlátová is currently on the island of Réunion, where animation work on her feature-length animated debut, My Sunny Maad, has recently begun. Animators at Studio Alkay in Prague are also already working on the project. The story is based on the book Freshta by Petra Procházková, a Czech investigative journalist and war reporter, which is described as a hard-hitting portrayal of Afghan women’s struggle for emancipation during the post-Taliban period. Screenwriter and script consultant Ivan Arsenjev adapted the story for the script; French script consultant and director Jean Charles Finck then worked on the script with Pavlátová. The story follows a Czech woman called Herra, who moves with her partner, the Afghan man Nazir, to his hometown of Kabul. They adopt...