City of Smiles

City of Smiles (2020)

Shehr e Tabassum

Pakistan, 2071. There have been no reported instances of terrorism or violent crime in over 30 years. The cost: the systemic subjugation of all human emotion.

Date of release
2020-02-29
TMDB
8.7 / 10 (3)
Runtime
9m
Genres
Animation, Science Fiction, Drama
Director
Arafat Mazhar

Casting

Interesting facts

Shehr e Tabassum, 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.

Development and production

The original concept for the film was obtained by the director, Arafat Mazhar, from a psychologist, Ayesha Iftikhar, who acted as co-founder with Mazhar for Shehri Pakistan, an organization whose focus has been on improving literacy and education among the children of Pakistan.

The film was first publicly showcased on February 2, 2020, at the Lahore Music Meet, but director Mazhar explained to the audience that he was not going to submit the film to any international film festivals, as they have a non-release clause that would prevent widespread dissemination of the film for free. Other pre-release screenings were done the same week in the United Kingdom.

Read on Wikipedia · Text from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. Data from Wikidata.

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