Wade | Indian Animated Short Film
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Published 2022-04-28
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"Wade" from the exciting Indian animation collective "Ghost Animation", is an award-winning post-apocalyptic action animated short that grapples with what the world will look like in the wake of climate change.
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WADE
A Film by Ghost Animation
Directed by Kalp Sanghvi & Upamanyu Bhattacharyya
www.instagram.com/wadethefilm/
"Arriving from India on the heels of an illustrious festival run, we’re pleased to present you the online premiere of Wade, an intense post-apocalyptic animation that showcases its creative team’s fresh design ideas in terms of visual style, worldbuilding, and storytelling, all of which they marry to…a deep sense of environmental conscientiousness?
Set in a future version of their home city of Kolkata which has been made uninhabitable by climate change, the film’s directors, Kalp Sanghvi and Upamanyu Bhattacharyya, craft a moody meditation that imagines survival in a post-disaster landscape, only to then explode the proceedings into a visceral action-thriller. While the film’s setting and supernatural undertones appeal on primal geek levels, and a kickass confrontation with a streak of tigers is unquestionably the heart of the film, Wade manages to transcend its stripped-down plotting and feel more substantive than a simple exercise in badassery. Wade’s initial and patient eye to its flooded surroundings, its thoughtful depiction of the group dynamics within its band of refugees, and the artful and inconclusive ending, all shine in the limited space surrounding its big showcase set-piece. Together, they provide the level of detail and specificity that elevates the action as well as justifies the high-concept climate angle of the film.
Animation and environmentalism have been engaged in a fruitful partnership for the last several years, a mini-trend I noted in last year’s review of the French student film, "Migrants". Animation’s freedom to depict whatever is imaginable with a total disregard for live-action cinema’s need for feasibility or budget has allowed it to be a useful storytelling medium for tackling big abstract concepts like climate change via metaphor or allegory. What distinguishes Wade from the other examples I’ve cited is not only in harder edge (ripped off limbs and infanticide make this a film to keep away from the kiddos) but also its status as a project hailing from Southeast Asia, one of the areas most afflicted already by climate change.
In conversing with Sanghvi and Bhattacharyya it became immediately clear how much this premise really inspired Wade. It was at the heart of the team’s crowdfunding pitch in 2016 when they became the fastest project on the Indian site Wishberry to meet their funding goal, and much of the same reasoning persists in 2022, as the directors noted that,
“While there is a lot of nostalgic storytelling about Kolkata, being a space steeped in centuries-old culture and tradition, not very many stories envision the future of the city. Sadly, Kolkata, along with several other cities in the world like Bangkok, Dhaka, Shanghai, New York, and Amsterdam are extremely vulnerable to rising sea levels…
The more we started thinking about how the whole city was living on borrowed time, almost waiting for an imaginary dam to breach, the more afraid we got. How does our life look after climate change?” - S/W Curator, Jason Sondhi
Reproduced on this channel with the permission of the filmmakers.
All Comments (21)
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Thanks to Ghost Animation for allowing us to share their work! Watch the best short films on Shortverse ➔ shortverse.com/
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My Eyes: “This animation is really cool.” My Brain: “What the heck am I watching?”
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my small take on the newborn tiger and tiger fight was: The newborn was a sign of adaption and change. its paws become more human-like and its strips are almost liquid-like to blend with the water while the orange tiger that killed the blind child's mother and try to kill the cub might have been a figure of how some people refuse to change or adapt even when its clear you have to the fact the bigger mother tiger had to assert herself to the orange tiger that not only went after a large amount food alone and try to ward off other tigers to keep it. A sign of greed and self-interest instead of helping and staying with the pack. When it saw the newborn new features that would make it very adaptable it try to kill the newborn because it was clear it would be survivor better. So the tiger rather kill of any changes or run away when it is lost. Given it's neck got cut it will die much earlier than before.
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This touches a nerve. Being born and brought up in Kolkata, having roamed Park Street since childhood, and having experiences all the subtle references that the animators so cleverly disguised, this short presents a truly nerve-racking alternative future. And of course, incredible work on the animation!
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It feels like the cub of the water walking tiger took the spirit of the drowned baby, which turned it human. Very cool animation.
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who said our Indian Animators don't have talent , this is a proof that if we gave them a chance sky is the limit as a anime fan i am really happy to see that we are started improving and making our animation industry better.
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As an Indian, it’s pretty refreshing to see something Indian for once.
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this is amazing but, did anyone else like, freeze up or heart stopped when the guy drowned the baby?
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Absolutely astounding both is animation, artistry and storytelling! I also love that super early on it already hinted at the tigers, not just from faded murals in the scenery, but with one man wearing a mask on the back of his head. For those who may not know- many people in India, especially those that work on the outskirts of forests such as loggers, wear masks painted/carved to look like faces on the back of their heads because tigers are ambush predators. Tigers are less likely to attack prey head-on because the risk of being seen before the pounce can allow the prey to escape a potential surprise attack. This way, the chance of being attacked unaware from behind is greatly reduced.
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I got chills running down my spine when i saw the trader's assembly frame. So beautifully drawn and animated. Kudos to the artist, I literally see every place shown in this short everyday. Damn EDIT: For anybody curious I think the mystical tiger that could walk on water was probably an inspiration from "Dakshin Ray" a shapeshifting tiger God of the Sundarban tribes quite similar to the Sming of Cambodia.
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I am from Kolkata, and been recently to Sundarbans on a trip ... This is brilliant and scary....
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Dayum! I work in the Sundarbans and just yesterday, I and my research assistant were discussing a similar fate of Kolkata. Love the mudskipper. For those who do not know, in the Indian Sundarbans people are killed by Tigers almost weekly. Also, people of the Indian Sundarbans used to consume tiger flesh many decades ago.
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I love how original the animation style is and how the faces of each character, human or tiger, show so much individualism and personality.
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3:04 This part is brilliant despite being so minimal. The writing on the wall shows that the first victims that came fleeing due to climate change weren't exactly treated well due to typical xenophobia.
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Absolutely incredible. If all Indian Animation was like this, instead of shitty Motu and Patlu, our film industry and cultural influence would be so much more.
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Incredible animation and drawing style. The view of shattered and sunken cities populated by animals and with almost no humans left has it's own unique atmosphere. They story is a bit confusing for me, but very likely it is related to reincarnation. A life of human child goes to the tiger cub.
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No one's gonna talk about how one of the guys just literally took a crying baby out of it's mother arms and drowned it right in front of the mother
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This is...absolutely INCREDIBLE. I love how the tigers are slightly pale and squiggly and drawn with super thin lines. I love everything about this. I love the implied worldbuilding and MIRACULOUS sense of setting and atmosphere.
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Man this is what we call true Indian animation, totaly different from anime and western style. Guys loved your work..
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Bro really said: “SHUT UP” And drowned the crying baby 💀
