“The Glassworker” is a steampunk fantasy romance in the anime style. Its novelty is that it’s the first Pakistani animated film of this type, and is Pakistan’s submission to the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences as a contender for a Best International Feature nomination.

There’s a long tradition of animated film and TV coming out of the Islamic world, but the most famous animated film in that setting was a Franco-US co-production, “Persepolis,” some years back.

Director Usman Riaz and screenwriter Moya O’Shea created a story that deals allegorically with Pakistan’s long history of conflicts, and do it in a steampunk fable with exotic airships, heroic early 20th century soldiers on foot and horseback and something no Pakistani town can exist without — a local djinn.

The story is about an apprentice glassblower who matures into an artist in glass, loving an army officer’s daughter from childhood onward. Its message is “Artists must create” and that there’s little room for nationalism or militarism in that mindset.

That’s just one of the obstacles that stand in the way of Vincent’s love for Alliz. He’s a fifth generation glassblower at Oliver Glassworks, the family firm. He meets Alliz at about age 11, when he is still too young to have blown his own glass but she is already a child prodigy on the violin.

He breaks his father Tomas’s edict about using the kiln without him around. But as Dad’s kept him out of school because “what you NEED to learn about is making glass,” maybe the old man will cut him some slack.

The story of Alliz and Vincent is told in flashback. He’s a famous artist now opening an exhibition at the Waterfront Town version of the Crystal Palance. She’s been out of his life for years, but she’s written him a letter.

In their youth, the clicked and clashed. She’s the daughter of Col. Amano. His father’s militantly anti-war and anti-military. She is an accomplished player when he meets her. But she just “interprets” others’ music. When he’s old enough and making his own art glass pieces, he insults her by saying “Artists CREATE.” They don’t just perform others’ work.

As they get older, there’s a love triangle as she is pursued by Malik, her classmate and now soldier under her father. Circumstances keep Vincent from being there for Alliz, and from telling her how he really feels.

The romance is blandly pro forma, even if the animation — under-animated in the anme style — is impressive.

There’s a lot of footage of glass blowing, discussion of “the world’s best sand” for making glass and the like. The disapproving parents element is played-up, then abruptly-dropped, at least in one case.

The design is vintage steam punk — baroque zeppelins powered by steam, sleekly modern pusher style airplanes, but people getting about on foot or on horseback when they’re not flying.

The street signs and letters are in English, but the film’s original soundtrack is acted-out in Urdu (or dubbed into English), as if “The Glassbower” was always intended for export.

As a first effort from a feature film animation start-up, it’s not in the same league with Studio Ghibli anime steampunk like “Howl’s Moviing Castle.” But it’s not bad even if the story is seriously unchallenging. Is it good enough to break through in the Best Animated Feature category? Probably not, not with slicker Pixar, Disney and Dreamworks fare as its competition.

But “The Glassworker” is well-crafted proof that even in the Middle East, the animation revolution will be televised, and shown in cinemas.

Rating: Unrated, violence

Cast: The voices of Khaled Anam, Mooroo, Mariam Paracha, Ameed Riaz, Mahum Moazzam, Aysha Sheikh, Dino Ali and Faiza Kazi in the Urdu version,
Anjli Mohindra, Anjli Mohindra, Sacha Dhawan,
Tony Jayawardena and Mina Anwar in the English language version.

Credits: Directed by Usman Riaz, scripted by Moya O’Shea. A Mano Studios?Charade release.

Running time: 1:38