Ishan Shukla's sci-fi animation 'Schirkoa: In Lies We Trust' shines 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.

‘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.

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.

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.

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.”