paper or plastic

An immigrant comes to the first-world country to paint a mural on the tallest tower. He tries to adapt to the new reality, but xenophobia and odd rules force him to go back.

The film is devoted to all the immigrants who are stuck in-between the worlds: not quite fitting in the new country, and becoming strangers in their homeland.

It’s my first independent film made not in a film school.

7.5 mins | USA | 2019
production: self-produced
direction, animation: Nata Metlukh
sound, music: Nicolas Martigne

story

When I started production in 2018 it had been 10 years since I moved out from my home country, and I decided to honor the anniversary by making a film about immigration.

Before shaping up the actual story, I created a 3-act structure of the events — the basic vector of the main character’s actions and obstacles on his way.

I researched about the immigration process and challenges that newcomers face in a new country. The biggest problems are: language, low-skilled jobs, housing, access to local services (like hospitals), cultural differences, prejudice, isolation etc. Many of the film episodes are based on this list.

My favorite part in storytelling was adding some absurd and strange elements. In the bureaucratic episodes Mikk needs to fly in order to deliver the document correctly, and in each next round he gets more naked to stress out the humiliation of the process.

In Dreamcity dogs walk backwards, fashion is weird, and street musicians play invisible instruments.

To finalize the story I had to think up all the missing situations and arrange all 100 shots in logical order. I figured out all the dirty jobs the main hero had to do, chose what kind of pattern he would paint, what odd rules in Dreamcity would lead him to troubles with the police, how exactly he would get a knife in his back, and what other betrayals he would experience in his journey.

policeman getting suspicious about his mask

fellow tourists from hero's hometown pretend they don’t recognize him

characters

In the film there are 3 types of characters: from the first-world countries (locals), second-world (where the hero is from, high-skilled workers), and the third-world ones (low-skilled).

design evolution of the 3 types of characters

In total, there are 90 characters and two countless crowds.

title

The obvious options for the title like “Alien”, “Immigrant” or “Unwelcomed” have been already existed.

I really wanted to title the film “Понаехали”, which expressed all the dissatisfaction with the immigrants’ presence (in Russian). But in English I couldn’t find the same concise phrase with the right amount of mundane rudeness.

Then I thought that the title had to express some choice as the main character constantly questions his presence in the Dreamcity.

I made up a nice title — “For here or to go?” which perfectly expresses the choice of staying-going, and follows along the immigration theme. The hero would work at a cafe selling sandwiches.

But, unfortunately, this title was also already taken by a movie about immigrants.

a man mistakenly takes the hero for a foreigner because of his smile

In the final round of the name search I looked up in several dictionaries slang allegories for immigrants. One of them was “paper or plastic”.

I doubted that in real life someone calls immigrants as “paper or plastic”, but I liked the name and it contained a questioned choice in it.

So “Paper or Plastic” it was! Thus the hero ended up in a grocery store packing stuff in paper or plastic.

Then I made a poster where he is sitting in between the chairs as he doesn’t know which one to choose.

The film’s logline is “Where R U from?”

production

language

Sound, music and voices are made by Nicolas Martigne. In the film there are several dialogs in “fictional” english.

I didn’t use the real language because it usually requires using subtitles, which I try to avoid at all costs. The film has a fast pace and if there are subtitles it would be hard to follow both the picture and the text.

All the signs and texts in Dreamcity are written in standard galactic alphabet.

ℸ ̣ ⍑ᔑリꖌᓭ ⎓𝙹∷ ∷ᒷᔑ↸╎リ⊣!

awards

Jury Choice Award at Feinaki Beijing Animation Week (China, 2019)

Jury Special Mention at Linoleum Animation Festival (Ukraine, 2019)

Honorable Mention at Kuandu International Animation Festival (Taiwan, 2019)

Surreal Narrative award at KROK Animation Film Festival (Russia, 2019)

Special Mention at Insomnia Animation Film Festival (Russia, 2019)

Special Mention at Mecal Pro Animation Film Festival (Spain, 2020)

2d place at Publicystyka International Film Festival (Poland, 2019)