Pakistan animation film contends at Academy Awards for first time

LONDON: Pakistani composer and animator Usman Riaz has said that his animation film The Glassworker is a labour of love and he is overjoyed that his film is contending for the Best Animated feature at Academy Awards.

"This has brought Pakistani animation to the global stage and we are thrilled,” Riaz told Geo News at the London screening of his film at a Soho theatre, attended by a large number of people including film critics.

Riaz said that it took him 10 years to make ‘The Glassworker’, of Geo Films. “This is a seminal hand-drawn animation feature. At Mano Animation Studios, we had to build the infrastructure from scratch to create Pakistan's first animated film.

Produced by Khizer Riaz, Manuel Cristobal (Buñuel in the Labyrinth of the Turtles), directed and written by Riaz and co-writer Moya O'Shea, the story revolves around Vincent (Sacha Dhawan) and his father Tomas (Art Malik), whose peaceful life running a glasswork shop in a small town is disturbed by conflict sweeping down from the north.

The father and son's relationship was tested when Vincent falls in love with Alliz (Anjli Mohindra), a talented violinist who is the daughter of the newly stationed colonel (Tony Jayaward). Their desire for one another and their creative souls are an affront to a harsher sensibility fuelled by patriotism, where tradition would deny Vincent and Alliz's love.

Riaz told Geo News: “This is Pakistan’s official selection at the Academy Awards. I started this when I was 23 in 2014. We trained people in six years. Pakistan has never made such a film ever. There was no concept of hand drawn animation at that time. It has generated a huge interest in animation. Computer Generated animation work in Pakistan is really good such as the Donkey King. Hand drawn animation takes a lot of time because it’s drawing related.”

Riaz was invited to speak at the Ted in 2012 and that opened many doors for him. He said: “In 2012 I was selected for the Ted Fellowship and played guitar to the audience. They saw my unique guitar playing style. That helped to open many doors for me and for my passion for animation.

Riaz said: “I've been obsessed with animation since I was a child. I grew up watching films from Japan, not thinking they were made in Japan. I fell in love with the visual medium through the drawings, the storytelling and the pacing. Who would have thought while they were making those films, that they would inspire someone from Pakistan to take up the mantle and say, "I want to do this too."

The movie that changed everything for me was A Wind Rises. Jiro and Caproni's journey in the movie, and how they connect through their love for aeronautical engineering, made me ask myself why I wasn't doing this? I thought, 'I love animation, and no one has started a hand-drawn animation studio in Pakistan, but that doesn't matter because we'll make our own.'”

The film has been dubbed into multiple languages including English, Spanish, and Ukrainian, and thus far has earned a nationwide release in Pakistan last July, and in Spain last November.

Riaz said: “I was born surrounded by arts and culture. I come from the family of Zia Mohiuddin. I saw musical instruments and arts work all around me when I was born. I started playing harmonium when I was kid.”