'The Glassworker' (2023): Annecy Film Review
From a studio headed and co-founded by multi-hyphenate Usman Riaz, Pakistan’s Mano Animation Studios brings its all for the country’s first-ever hand-drawn animated feature, ‘The Glassworker’, a vibrant and emotional anime-inspired work. Hailing from Karachi, Riaz is not only a director but also an accomplished musician, a background that he puts to great use in ‘The Glassworker’ also as one of the composers (along with Carmine DiFlorio) as well as having managed its casting and cinematography. With a story by Riaz and Moya O’Shea (screenplay solely by O’Shea), ‘The Glassworker’ just enjoyed its official world premiere at Annecy International Animation Film Festival in the Feature Films Contrechamp Competition, where it also screened just weeks before at Cannes Film Festival.
Although the film’s setting is never officially made explicit, ’The Glassworker’ is set in a fictional city dubbed “Waterfront Town", a prim and proper combination of Pakistani and British colonial influence, from the names to the clothing. The country is embroiled in a war with its neighbor over the territorial rights to a mineral-rich ravine. Being a Pakistani film, it’s easy to jump to comparisons to Pakistan and India’s border skirmishes, although the land being fought over in the film is a resource-replete area. This could thus reasonably allow the film to be placed anywhere, contributing to a touch of universality.
Released in both Urdu and English, the English language version features a talented cast of British voice actors of Indian and Pakistani descent. Told in two timelines, the young Vincent Oliver (voiced by Sascha Dhawan — a frequent TV actor known for ‘Iron Fist’ and ‘The Great’) is a glassworking apprentice training with his widowed father, Tomas Oliver (Art Malik with a warm, fatherly tone). When Vincent was a boy (young Vincent voiced by Teresa Gallaghar), a charming girl with red hair named Alliz Amano (Anjli Mohindra, who is also Dhawan’s partner) stumbles into the Oliver glassworking shop, immediately smitten with Vincent. We learn that Alliz, a talented aspiring violinist, is the son of the stern Colonel Amano (Tony Jayawardena), a military leader who heads up a war effort against its neighboring country over an area known as the “Great Ravine”. However, Tomas is an uncompromising pacifist, leading to conflicts of interest as the children grow up and Vincent and Alliz have a mutual interest in each other.
Watch 'The Glassworker' trailer:
The greatest flaw of ‘The Glassworker’ is its relatively convoluted narrative, but this never slows the film’s roll. Flipping back between childhood and the characters' teenage years, the audience is witness to Vincent growing up and his blossoming friendship with Alliz, where they end up in a Romeo-and-Juliet-lite situation as Tomas tries to stop Vincent from engaging with the wealthy and military-centric Amano family. Alliz’s interest in Vincent never fades, even as she faces interest from other boys, including one named Malik (Sham Ali). The throughline of a djinn that appears in the form of a bright light and eerie sound also complicates the story, but this element never adds much to the overall plot.
Underlying ‘The Glassworker’ is also a fascinating anti-war (or is at least conflicted about war) narrative embodied by Vincent’s own struggles right through the very end. While the adults fight back and forth — and the Olivers face immense ostracization in the community for not supporting the war — Vincent and Alliz are caught in the metaphorical cross-fire, while Malik and other boys are essentially indoctrinated by the military, joining the “Junior Guards” and supporting the war effort. Even Colonel Amano comes to realize the futility and failure of their war as they lose control of the Great Ravine, just as the manufacturing of warplanes and other materiels only grows and grows.
Riaz and DiFlorio’s music sometimes also borders on the cheesy, sweeping piano and orchestral tunes that emulate scores of K-dramas, but the music is never disruptive. Anime- and Studio Ghibli-inspired character animation brings this story to life with great merit, although it’s understandable if viewers might complain of too direct of similarities. Nonetheless, the colorful backgrounds are undeniably beautiful and the style fits well with the storytelling. Overall, there is no doubt that Pakistan has struck gold in Mano Animation Studios with its first hand-drawn feature animation effort — not to mention the film as a highly impressive debut for the filmmaker.
contributed by: Olivia Popp
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