Breadwinner (2017)

This is an adapted story from a young adult novel, and as another review noted, it would be unbearable to watch if it were not animated.  The treatment of the citizenry in general and women especially by the Taliban is so brutal as to be sadistic in the name of religion.  The desire to control is intoxicating, as does violence breed violence and so on.
The heroine is Parvana, an 11 year old girl who transforms herself into a boy in order to save her family after her father is arrested.  Women without men are literally hostages in their homes and would starve to death without desperate measures.  Life as a boy holds tremendous freedom compared to that of a girl.  Parvana can sell her literacy as a boy, whereas she would be stoned to death for such as a girl. 
Before his arrest Parvana's father teaches her the value of story telling and when the going gets rough, she uses stories to both give herself courage and to comfort others.  The ending is ambiguous, but the message that being educated can raise you up even in oppression is the only hope that is offered in this otherwise gruesome movie that is beautifully animated.