A most unexpected offering from Serbia, which isn’t known for elaborate animated science fiction features. That, however is just what 2009’s TECHNOTISE: EDIT AND I (EDIT I JA) is. Its basis was a comic strip by the Belgrade-based Aleksa Gajic, who went on to write, direct, design and animate the film, which was made for around US$900,000.
It takes place in the year 2074, in a technological landscape where virtual reality is ubiquitous and stuffed animals can talk. A carefree young woman named Edit has failed an important exam, and so has a microchip implanted into her bloodstream that’s supposed to bolster her memory. From there Edit heads to the home of Abel, an autistic boy she’s paid to look after, and he makes an unexpected prediction: that she’ll soon be getting an important phone call.
Sure enough, Edit gets an important phone call. It’s from Abel’s guardian, a scientist who confirms the boy can predict the future. Abel, Edit learns, is being used in an expensive project that promises to impact humanity irrevocably by using technology to predict the future. Unfortunately Edit insists on telling people what she’s learned, which pisses off the project’s overseers and makes her a target.
Even worse, after passing her exam Edit begins suffering from debilitating hallucinations. Deciding they’re due to the implant, she has it taken out, but the hallucinations don’t stop. She also becomes addicted to iron supplements and develops seemingly supernatural strength. The reason for this, it transpires, is that the chip with which she was injected has been mutating inside her body, and is transforming her DNA along with it.
Soon Edit is seeing a strange white-haired man who appears to be another hallucination. He is in fact a projection of her subconscious who serves roughly the same function Obi-Wan Kenobi did in the STAR WARS flicks: a mentor and advisor. This turns out to be an extremely handy thing, as the world around Edit is turning increasingly deadly and surreal.
In critiquing this film the animation must be mentioned first. The visuals are striking, especially given the extremely low budget and sparse crew (a reported 10-15 people). It’s heavily manga inspired overall (note that a supporting character is named Otomo), while the flashbacks are rendered in highly sketchy and indistinct black and white and the hallucinations depicted through various odd distortions.
Yes for all its superlatives the visual design has a number of noticeable shortcomings. Among them are the oddly featureless faces, particularly that of the heroine (who was allegedly supposed to resemble Jessica Alba). The primitive nature of the animation is evident in its jerky and unfinished nature; it’s a film in which only portions of an image move while everything else in the frame stays eerily still. This lends the animation a stylization that may not have been entirely intentional.
The futuristic world in which everything takes place is quite striking, at least. Set in a highly technological metropolis, it’s suffused with rich, detail-packed backgrounds (note the electrical wiring that runs through everything). Also featured is a fair amount of Cinemax late night worthy nudity and soft-core sex, and a narrative that’s notably complex and difficult to follow. It’s a striking film, but not as much as it could have been.
Vital Statistics
TECHNOTISE: EDIT AND I (EDIT I JA)
Black White ‘N’ Green Animation Studio/Yodi Movie Craftsman
Director: Aleksa Gajic
Producer: Zoran Cvijanovic
Screenplay: Aleksa Gajic
Editing: Nebojsa Andric, Marko Glusac
Cast: Sanda Knezevic, Nebojsa Glogovac, Jelisaveta Sablic, Petar Kralj, Nikola Djuricko, Boris Mimlivojevic, Srdjan Todorovic, Marija Karan, Tatjana Djordjevic, Vlasta Velisavljevic, Srdjan Miletic, Igor Bugarski