The Cannes Film Festival has announced films in competition for its 72nd edition to take place May 14-25, and one animated feature has made it into the selection. The watercolor-styled hand-drawn animated feature The Swallows of Kabul, directed by Zabou Breitman and Eléa Gobbé-Mévellec, will premiere in the festival’s Un Certain Regard section.

Based on the 2002 bestselling novel by Yasmina Khadra, the French/Luxembourg/Switzerland co-pro was led by French studio Les Armateurs, which is behind animated features such as Kirikou and the Sorceress, The Triplets of Belleville, and Ernest & Celestine.

This animated adaptation of The Swallows of Kabul marks Breitman’s fist foray into animation, having worked most of her career as an actress and live-action director. For Gobbé-Mévellec this is her directorial debut after having worked as a designer on Lastman and as an animator on other 2d features such as The Rabbi’s Cat, The Prophet, and April and the Extraordinary World.