The Glassworker

Usman Riaz's 2024 film is Pakistan's first hand-drawn animated feature. Vincent is an apprentice in his father's glass workshop in a seaside town; his father opposes the war and insists on continuing his craft. The arrival of a colonel and the approach of the war break that order, and Vincent grows close to Alliz, the colonel's daughter and a gifted violinist, with the gulf between the two families straining the relationship. Rather than showing the war directly, the film describes how everyday life narrows: mobilisation, pressure, and the growing impossibility of making anything. Its visual language draws on Japanese animation, but the glassblowing scenes give the film a texture of its own. It screened at Annecy and became Pakistan's entry for the Academy Awards. Who it's for: viewers who like hand-drawn animation and coming-of-age stories set against war. Who it's not for: anyone expecting fast-paced animation; the film moves slowly.