Schirkoa: In Lies We Trust Delivers Spectacular Sci-Fi Animation

WE hear snatches of Hindi, maybe a few other languages and then settle on English. Two characters speak on a balcony overlooking a busy road. The animation suggests it is after dusk in a land where it is perpetually dark. The aesthetics suggest a combination of Blade Runner and Dark City, a futuristic dystopia with sprinkles of noir and it is all animated in 2D and 3D using video game engine. Overhead shots of the city and its roads, and car windshield as frame within a frame. Based on his 2016 short film, Ishan Shukla’s feature debut Schirkoa: In Lies We Trust — premiered at International Film Festival Rotterdam 2024 — has the citizens of Schirkoa wearing paper bags over their heads to cover their faces.

The man and woman speaking are 197A (voiced by Shabaz Sarwar) and 242B (Golshifteh Farahani), cogs in a machine where diversity is eradicated. Paper bags limit disposition and expression. A sneeze in an elevator is either frowned upon or horrifying. The ingrained adage is “To be alike is the way of life” and the mottos are Safety, Sanity and Sanctity. They are blasted through state media curiously voiced by Karan Johar. It is a society where collective responsibility is valued but not necessarily personal freedom and liberty, the paper bags cover not just the eyes but minds too. The government is run by “Intellectuals” and 197A is up for the post of Council Member. He is conformist and non-confrontational, one who believes the narrative and toes the line. There is news about infiltration of the mysterious Anomalies — people with horns and wings — but the state suppresses them, claiming that Anomalies do not even exist. There is imminent war and immigrants at the border.

Shukla’s film contains stunning animation with ominous and exuberant music by Sneha Khanwalkar. The colours oscillate and there is play with light and focus making the world look as real as possible. Twilight glistens variably across 197A’s face as he sits at the edge of a very tall building and the music wavers between electronic, jazz, synth pop and blues at appropriate moments. The worlds shift too. We learn about a mysterious place called Konthaqa, a place where everyone is free and diverse. Lies — voiced by Asia Argento — nominally presides over the station. There is personal liberty and the young protest. There is imagination to the proceedings, like when we meet a mysterious character who shuns the paper bag and then reluctantly wears one, but it is made of old newspapers. I laughed out loud at “you son of a glitch”. In the early conversation, the neon sign of “Sharab” is framed in a way for only “Arab” to appear in the background.

Schirkoa also boasts of some famous names doing voice cameos. We have Gaspar Noé, Lav Diaz, Anurag Kashyap (a hilarious cameo that could rival his recent appearance in Lokesh Kanagaraj’s Leo) and even Piyush Mishra mouthing philosophy in Hindi as if someone airdropped him right off the sets of Gulaal.

If there is anything murky about Shukla’s Schirkoa, it is the central ideology that drives it. Or maybe absence of a coherent one. The film charts the journey of 197A, a traditional follower who goes through a spiritual transformation, but the film keeps him at an arm’s length from what it wishes to portray, making the film and its protagonist cynical at best. There is talk of suppression but there is also talk of too much freedom. There is a monastery with echoes of namaz nearby. But Schirkoa: In Lies We Trust doesn’t necessarily instruct, it is more Waltz With Bashir but with less apologia and more disillusionment.