“With broad overtures of writers like George Orwell and Ray Bradbury, the film offers a fresh perspective on common conversations about the future.”

The future has always been a curious place to live, and has fascinated generations of philosophers and artists alike. We often find works of literature that somehow manage to combine the two in fascinating ways, such as in the case of Schirkoa: In Lies We Trust, the feature-length directorial debut of Indian animator Ishan Shukla. Taking the loose framework and basic ideas from a short film he produced in 2016, the director crafts a fascinating story of a future in which almost the entire population wears paper bags over their heads and are referred to only by a string of numbers that act as their names, both to shield their identity. In this world there is a social war waged between the “Bagheads”, representing ordinary citizens, and the “Anomalies”, those who do not quite fit into society for various reasons. Our protagonist is 197A, a young Baghead with political aspirations, but the further he ventures into the seedy underbelly of the political world, the bleaker the truth becomes. We accompany him as he sets out to unearth the secrets that linger beneath the surface of his city, making some stark realizations in the process that shed light on some uncomfortable truths that many would prefer to have hidden.

It would be difficult to dismiss the sheer ambition that went into Schirkoa, which is a film that takes a few calculated risks, both stylistically and narratively, and manages to be relatively successful in the process. Shukla has been experimenting with animation for a while, but this was his first feature-length effort and the results are fascinating. Employing technology mostly used in video games, the film has a distinct appearance – the design of the characters and the cityscapes in which they occur are striking and create a very distinct appearance that persists throughout the film. Some of it may lack detail (such as the characters’ faces when they remove their masks), but there is enough work done to create the aesthetic appearance of the film that we can overlook some of the more uncanny aspects. The film moves with great fluidity, not only in terms of the animation but also the story being told. There is a smoothness to how Shukla presents this Orwellian thriller, evoking a sense of unease through the often quite challenging story that takes place in a grimy dystopian future that bears a striking resemblance to our own reality, or at least what is likely to happen if we continue on this path against which the filmmakers warn us. Conversations around propaganda and the fact that the general public is indoctrinated to believe certain fallacies as being unimpeachable truths provoke quite a bit of discussion and set the foundation for a remarkably challenging drama.

However, a strong concept and solid execution are not always sufficient, and we find that Schirkoa has a few shortcomings that stop it from achieving its full potential, even if some of the flaws are negligible. Within its first act the director introduces about half a dozen narrative threads, and as soon as we believe they have been resolved, more are brought into the fray. This leads to a film that has far too much going on, and the result is a story that feels overly compressed with ideas, very few of which can be followed through to completion. The story also sometimes comes across as being slightly vague, with the discussions around subjects such as the future of social order and the role of religion in politics being interesting but still somewhat out of place. Several thematic undercurrents are too ambiguous to be entirely convincing, and while Shukla does his best to tie everything together neatly, the resolutions are somewhat flawed and do not come across as being as satisfying as they could have been had the abundance of themes been given another look and subsequently streamlined to make for a more efficient film. Ultimately, this has the most impact on the tone of the film, and it prevents it from being easily classified within any of the genres to which it is paying tribute.

Despite these reservations, Schirkoa is still a worthwhile endeavour, especially for those with an interest in a radically different kind of speculative fiction. Its politics may be somewhat questionable and it does occasionally seem to be falling victim to its own eccentricities, but for the most part the film is still quite compelling. The emotions in particular are genuine, and despite the intentionally artificial appearance that plays on our inherent unease with the uncanny, it does manage to be quite moving in certain parts, particularly those where Shukla emphasizes the humanity beneath these characters without coming across as overwrought. A project like Schirkoa certainly does not intend to shatter boundaries, but it does operate under the knowledge that for such a film, progress is a marathon rather than a sprint. The small details embedded in the film, coupled with the striking animation that contains many fascinating elements, work together to tell an intriguing story about a possible future, and with broad overtures of writers like George Orwell and Ray Bradbury (both of whom are indirectly referenced, either visually or in terms of the narrative), the film offers a fresh perspective on common conversations about the future. Perhaps it may be slightly over-ambitious, but it makes up for this earnestness with some unique elements that help elevate the film, as well as signalling the start of what may become a very promising career in animation.