There’s a touch of the poet, the adventurer, and the dreamer in Marco Kalantari’s short film, “The Shaman.” There’s a quirky intensity here like you might find in your favorite story or game. And I consider myself most fortunate to know about it now.
It’s bursting with originality and fierce energy that grabs you from the start. It is 2204. We fight our wars with intelligent machines. The only way to subvert their power is to engage with their souls. And it is only the shamans who can access these machine souls that exist in the Netherworld.
The world war has been raging for 73 years on. It’s some really strange and dark holy war or something quite bad. A scorched Earth is nothing new to anyone. But there’s the Netherworld and, perhaps, it is there that all souls will some day know eternal peace.
“The Shaman” packs quite a punch. It’s a dark and gothic mashup of “Star Wars” and “District 9.” The special effects are first-rate. And there’s plenty of new ground upon which to trod and take leaps of faith from. You’ll love the ritual involved in transporting a Shaman to the Netherworld. This short film provides a whole new set of terms and signs to behold.
And the scene between The Shaman (played by Danny Shayler) and the Soul of the Colossus (played by Susanne Wuest) is brilliant. This is a great battle of wits between shaman and machine. It’s wonderful to see and let’s hope that perhaps all this leads to a major full-length motion picture. I really think that’s possible. Whatever lies ahead, this is an excellent short film.
What follows is a prequel to The Shaman. This is a manga story setting the stage for what lies ahead in the main story:
