Spotlight on “Schirkoa, the City of Fables”, a Franco-Indian animated film

This first feature film by Indian Ishan Shukla, made with hybrid animation techniques and the voices of Golshifteh Farahani, Asia Argento, Gaspar Noé, SoKo and Lav Diaz, was produced on the French side by the company Dissidenz Films. Its producer, Bich-Quân Tran, tells the behind-the-scenes story.

You created the distribution company Dissidenz Films in 2012. What was its guiding principle?

Bich-Quân Tran: Previously, I had created and managed the video publishing company Blaq Out for ten years. A company that had gradually broadened its scope by distributing films in theaters. In 2012, I wanted to continue on this path. So I created Dissidenz Films and let Blaq Out refocus on video publishing. The idea was to distribute documentary films of all nationalities and Asian films of all genres. Among them: Dior et moi by Frédéric Tcheng; 25 novembre 1970, le jour où Mishima choisit son destin by Koji Wakamatsu; Death in the Land of Encantos by Lav Diaz…

We wanted to transcend the original genre, animation, to make it a unique cinematic object.

Why focus your attention on the Asian continent in particular?

I started at Warner Home Video where most of the catalog was American. At Blaq Out, I worked a lot on French and European cinema. With Dissidenz Films, let’s say that by devoting myself to Asian cinema, I went back to my roots! Little by little, the company diversified by developing its production activities. It all started with Lav Diaz’s medium-length film, Prologue to the Great Desaparecido (2013), the premise of her feature film A Lullaby to the Sorrowful Mystery , on which I was associate producer and which won the Silver Bear at the Berlinale in 2016.

When did you meet Ishan Shukla, the Indian director of the animated film Schirkoa, City of Fables ?

In 2019, at the Film Bazaar in Goa, the largest co-production market in South Asia organized by the National Film Development Corporation (NFDC), the Indian equivalent of the CNC.  Schirkoa, the City of Fables  (originally titled Schirkoa: In Lies We Trust ) was one of the selected projects. The concept of the story and the universe of Ishan Shukla, its director and creator, immediately caught my attention. So I met him, who pitched me the project, then I watched his short film already called Schirkoa (2016) – which inspired this feature film – for which I had a crush. He and I quickly discovered cinematographic affinities and decided to work together. I very quickly contacted Stephan Holl, German distributor and producer – Rapid Eye Movies – to join the adventure as a co-producer. I had known Stephan for a long time, being initially a distributor myself and sharing with him the same attraction for Asian cinema. The existence of the bilateral co-production treaty between India and France in 2010  allowed us to request additional funding (Sofica) and later to obtain approval. Although not very familiar with animated cinema, I embarked on this adventure, won over by the teeming, colorful, political, poetic and philosophical universe of the director, as well as by his stunning aesthetic, halfway between cinema and a very personal style of animation.

After this meeting, you almost immediately decided to become executive producer of the film. What were the terms of your engagement?

Ishan had not found any producer in India to follow him in his adventure until then. So I suggested that he create his own production company. So he became the executive producer for India and I for France. I really acted on a whim in an almost naive way because I had no experience in animation. In any case, I never consider films according to their genre. What Ishan proposed, by mixing different animation techniques – 2D and hand-painted effect on the one hand; 3D via MoCap and the use of real time thanks to the video game engine on the other hand – and his work on depth of field, lighting, brought something very cinematographic. This is also why I suggested that he use the voices of personalities from the world of cinema from different backgrounds, countries, cultures and disciplines: Golshifteh Farahani, Asia Argento, Gaspar Noé, SoKo, Lav Diaz, Anurag Kashyap… Furthermore, all these personalities are, through their personal stories, very politically engaged in one way or another, like the reflection proposed by the film and its universal themes on diversity, power and self-acceptance.  Schirkoa: City of Fables echoes contemporary turbulence while being a film that aims to be entertaining, playing with humor and imagination, including in the most dramatic situations. Ultimately, with Schirkoa: City of Fables , we wanted to transcend the original genre, animation, to make it a unique film object. The film was also produced with funding other than that usually allocated to animation… By breaking free from the codes of traditional animation,  Schirkoa: City of Fables  thus asserts its unique, hybrid, crazy and disconcerting character! As proof, it was presented at the beginning of 2024 at the Rotterdam Film Festival, where it won an award, then toured both prestigious general festivals (Gothenburg, Taipei, Munich, Edinburgh, Kerala etc.) and popular genre film festivals (BIFFF, NIFFF, BIFAN, Sitges, L’Etrange Festival etc.)… but, paradoxically, not animation film festivals! For me, the film is aimed at an eclectic and open-minded audience, beyond the traditional animation audience.

How did you manage to make the film possible?

The main difficulty encountered in this adventure was the fact that the film was classified in the “adult animation” category, which represents a commercial risk that many do not want to take. We were lucky to benefit from the Aide aux cinémas du monde which really gave everything a boost. This internationally recognized quality label allowed us to demonstrate the solidity of our project to private investors. In the end, in addition to the participation of Stephan Holl as co-producer, we were also able to count on the support of the Polish international sales agent, New Europe Film Sales, who had already handled Ishan’s short film. Additional support came from the Nouvelle Aquitaine Region – all of the motion capture for the film was, in fact, shot in Angoulême – to which must be added the valuable support of SOFICA Cofinova, headed by Alexis Dantec, who is a great film buff, passionate about comics, science fiction and Asian cinema… On the Indian side, Epic Games, the American publisher of the Unreal Engine software, the video game engine in which the film was entirely produced, awarded us the prestigious Epic MegaGrant grant. Finally, an Indian media company, Civic Studios, based in England, came to complete the film’s financing.

We were lucky enough to benefit from the Aide aux cinémas du monde which really gave everything a boost. This internationally recognised quality label enabled us to demonstrate the strength of our project to private investors.

How would you characterize the adventure of this production? 

Extraordinary, a bit like the film! You have to see it several times to grasp its full dramatic scope. There are different levels of interpretation. Schirkoa, the City of Fables was shot with a very small but very close-knit team, in guerrilla mode with a very limited economy. Each person sometimes had to perform several tasks. I thus found myself assisting the director on the set during the entire MoCap shoot, supervising the sound mixing in Marseille while Ishan was in India or negotiating with Indian investors… More generally, not coming from the world of animation, I essentially proceeded empirically… The Covid-19 pandemic had at least one virtue, that of mutual aid. I thus managed to perhaps more easily get in touch with many available professionals who guided me in certain choices. I had to believe in the project until the end, despite its singular nature and my status as an outsider.

Dissidenz Films movie poster

Written and directed by Ishan Shukla

Executive production: Bich-Quân Tran – Dissidenz Films (France) and Ishan Shukla – Red Cigarette Media (India)

Distribution: Dissidenz Films

International Sales: New Europe Film Sales

Theatrical release January 1, 2025