Ishan Shukla’s  Schirkoa: In Lies We Trust to have its World Premiere at the International Film Festival of Rotterdam

Award-winning filmmaker Ishan Shukla’s debut feature Schirkoa: In Lies We Trust’, a dystopian sci-fi animation film will have its World Premiere at the 2024 International Film Festival of Rotterdam (IFFR) in the Bright Future section. The festival will be held from 25 January to 4 February.

‘Schirkoa: In Lies We Trust’ tells the story of a dystopian world where people are made to wear paper bags over their heads to dissolve differences, and an anonymous citizen sparks an accidental revolution.

Ishan’s debut feature is based on his award-winning short with the same name, ‘Schirkoa’ (2016) which played at 120 plus international film festivals and won 33 awards, including Best Animated Short award at the LA Shorts Festival and was longlisted for the Academy Awards.

Director Ishan Shukla

The 103-minute film features principal voices of international film personalities such as Golshifteh Farahani, Asia Argento, SoKo, King Khan And The Shrines, Denzil Smith, John Sutton and introducing Tibu Fortes and Shahbaz Sarwar and guest star voices of Lav Diaz, Karan Johar, Shekhar Kapur, Anurag Kashyap, Piyush Mishra and auteur filmmaker Gasper Noé.

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The film’s eclectic, immersive soundtrack is composed by the acclaimed Sneha Khanwalkar, who has created iconic compositions for films like Gangs of Wasseypur and Oye Lucky Lucky Oye.

Schirkoa is an Indo-French-German co-production between Red Cigarette Media (Ishan Shukla’s Vadodara-based animation studio), Dissidenz Films (Paris-based production company led by Bich-Quan Tran), and Rapid Eye Movies (German production and distribution company led by Stephan Holl), in association with Civic Studios (Mumbai and London-based production studio focused on impact storytelling) and French Sofica Cofinova 18.

On the Indian side, it has been Executive-Produced by Civic Studios’ founder, Anushka Shah and co-produced by Samir Sarkar. The film was also supported by CNC Cinémas du Monde, Epic MegaGrants, Film¬ und Medienstiftung NRW and French region Nouvelle-Aquitaine.

The film is represented by New Europe Film Sales for its international sales, and will be co-repped by Anonymous Content for the North America region.

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The debut filmmaker Ishan Shukla who also directed an episode of ‘Star Wars: Visions Volume 2’ says, ‘Schirkoa: Iin Llies Wwe Ttrust’ is the culmination of my decade-long journey dedicated to crafting a film that transcends boundaries and mediums. I am truly exhilarated that this narrative, reflecting our zeitgeist, is on the brink of being unveiled to the world.’

Anushka Shah, the founder of Civic Studios says, “At Civic Studios, we’re very excited about Schirkoa’s premiere at IFFR. It is an absolute honour to be associated with such a project that brings together superb animation, a great voice over ensemble, and powerful social commentary together. Our focus at Civic Studios has been quality content that resonates globally and I think this project manages to do just that.”