Zako
OnOff studio is happy to announce the release of the teaser for the upcoming animated feature film Zako. This is a true story based on the graphic novel Zako - Crude Fruit by Tigran Mangasryan, which conveys the events of WW2 through the eyes of a painter and the lens of his relationships with people, himself and the system, as the latter’s imperfections are being brought to light.
Zako – this is how the Germans called the Soviet Armenian painter Sargis Mangasaryan, who lived through the hell of a Nazi POW camp. Zako survived by drawing portraits of his tormentors. In 1956, Zako and his friends visit a Picasso exhibition. Suddenly they freeze in awe before the great master’s pinnacle work Guernica. Zako realizes how unripe he has stayed in all those years drawing portraits. And even though he was fighting for freedom, his artistic growth was limited by the impact of the system.
The film is directed by the young and creative Tigran Arakelyan, who wants to deliver the unique message of the story with innovative technique, which he developed experimenting in the early stages of production. “Our aim is to produce an innovative piece”, he says, “that would push artistic boundaries by engaging with modern VR technologies using Quill capacities combined with classical CG rendering tools to create a unique visual language verging to a graphic novel.”
In just a short period, the film got support from the National Cinema Center of Armenia and won a full accreditation for the Annecy Film Festival during the Annecy workshop in Georgia with the support of ReAnimania International Animation Film & Comics Art Festival and the Georgian Animation Association "Saqanima". The film is now in development and according to producer Susanna Khachatryan, they plan to release it by 2025.
