Ishan Shukla’s ‘Schirkoa: In Lies We Trust’ wows the audience at the 53rd International Film Festival of Rotterdam

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

Here is the first look trailer of the film launched:

‘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 the Best Animated Short award at the LA Shorts Festival and was longlisted for the Academy Awards.

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.

Also read: Fighter actor Karan Sharma opens up about his role in the film and working with director Siddharth Anand

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.

The film is an Indo-French-German co-production. On the Indian side the film is produced by Red Cigarette Media in association with Civic Studios. It is Executive Produced by Anushka Shah and Co-Produced by Samir Sarkar.

Excited about the World Premiere response, the debut filmmaker Ishan Shukla who also directed an episode of ‘Star Wars: Visions Volume 2’ says, “I’m so happy about the film’s great response and its premiere at Rotterdam. Having our film at IFFR has been a great honour for us, the response towards the film has been truly overwhelming and amazing. It was incredible to see how well it connected with the audience here.”

Anushka Shah, the founder of Civic Studios says, “We are thrilled by the reception ‘Schirkoa: In Lies We Trust’ has received today at the World Premiere. For a film to spark immediate conversation within the audience, leave viewers with critical questions about the world and our individual roles in it, while also mesmerizing with the visuals and music is incredible. We’re very happy to be able to support Ishan’s vision and together we can’t wait to take this story to a larger audience worldwide.”