Shehr e Tabassum (2020)

Directed by

Arafat Mazhar

Genre

cyberpunk, animated film

Country

Pakistan

Runtime

9 min

Rating

8.7 of 10 from 3 voters

Elsewhere

IMDb

How it feels

In the future, a city forces everyone to smile constantly using technology, or face death. This animated short shows a society where violent crime is eliminated by suppressing all negative emotions.

dystopiantenseunsettlingfuturisticoppressivebleakslow-burnsatirical

What happens

Shehr e Tabassum (Urdu: شہر تبسم, romanized: Śahr-i-Tabassum, lit. 'City of Smiles'), officially translated as City of Smiles, is a 2020 Pakistani Urdu-language animated short film directed by Arafat Mazhar and produced by Puffball Studios. It features an animated depiction of Pakistan set in a dystopian future of 2071, where crime and violent disagreements have been minimized by using technology to force everyone to constantly smile and not show negative emotions under threat of death. The first trailer for Shehr e Tabassum was released in February 2019, and the final version was uploaded to YouTube on February 29, 2020. The film's creators have noted that other works—including science fiction films like Blade Runner and Akira, and such novels as George Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four—were the primary inspirations for the setting in the film. (from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA)

Trailer

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