‘Tomorrow’ Is An Ambitious 14-Minute CG Short From Iran (Trailer)

Tomorrow is a 14-minute dialogue-less cg short currently being produced independently in Iran.

In the film, a scrappy 10-year-old street urchin struggling to survive the day-to-day hardships of life forms a friendship with a stray dog that eventually changes both of their lives. A trailer for the film was recently released online:

Tomorrow is written and directed by Aryasb Feiz, who is making his directing debut with the film. Feiz graduated from Animation Mentor in 2012 and has worked on shorts, commercials, and tv series in the Iranian animation industry. He is also currently teaching character animation. Below are a couple Iranian commercials on which he was animation supervisor:

Feiz started his own studio, Badstache, in 2014 to produce Tomorrow. When looking for story ideas, he was inspired by a vintage photo of two mischievous-looking boys playing in the street. With other members of his studio, they brainstormed ideas about possible stories for these boys and their relationship, eventually developing a story in which the characters faced a compelling real-life dilemma. One of Feiz’s goals was to avoid the conventional good vs. bad cliches of scriptwriting, and explore ethical ambiguities and gray areas.

“We decided to make the film dialogue-free in order to connect with a wider audience,” Feiz told Cartoon Brew. “This presented a big challenge for me to try to tell the story visually. I wanted the direction to be invisible so sequences were staged with very realistic camera moves and focused the storytelling first on acting and second on staging, composition and rhythm.”

Feiz has assembled a talented team in the Iranian capital of Tehran to work on the film, including animation supervisor Kaveh Ruintan, who previously worked as an animator on Carlos Baena’s La Noria, and character designer Mehdi Alibeygi, whose short film Changeover premiered in the first season of our CB Fest.

The film is a period piece, set in mid-20th century Iran, and takes visual inspiration from Feiz’s hometown of Shiraz. Both Alibeygi and the film’s art director, Hamidreza Sheykh, designed the environments and overall look of the film based on vintage Persian references and 1960s Iranian architecture.

Feiz also points out that lighting is a crucial storytelling element in the film. He credits lighting supervisor Payam Memar for “coming up with creative solutions to stay faithful to the exact time of the plot while capturing the essence of concept designs.”

Badstache anticipates completing the film within the next year. To keep up with news about the production and distribution of the film, visit Badstache.com.

A selection of character turntables and animation tests from Tomorrow can be viewed below: