Shadow Game will premiere at Movies that Matter on Saturday 17 April at 20:00 (online). The film is followed by a talk with directors Els van Driel & Eefje Blankevoort, researcher Zuhoor Alqaisi and Mohammed, one of the main characters from the film (Meet the Makers Live).
Watch on demand
Watch Shadow Game from April 18 12:00 – Wed April 21 20:00 at home at your own time ONLINE / On Demand (including recorded aftertalk).
Impact discussion Shadow Game: European asylum policy
In collaboration with KRO-NCRV, we organized a talkshow in which the filmmakers, MEP Tineke Strik (GroenLinks), Babiche Routledge (UNHCR Netherlands, the UN Refugee Agency) and professor Halleh Ghorashi, discuss the traumatizing journey of the main characters from Shadow Game.
More information and tickets for this program can be found here.
Shadow Game is an experimentally filmed account of the far-reaching consequences of European asylum policy. Now fences have gone up all over Europe, seeking asylum has become almost impossible. The teenagers cross snowy landscapes and meet aggressive border police on their way. Reaching their final destination has become more difficult than ever. Their journey takes them through the whole of Europe: from Greece to North Macedonia, Serbia and Bosnia and Herzegovina, from Italy to France and The Netherlands. The film was shot over a period of three years, partly by the main characters themselves on their phones.
Durrab (16 from Pakistan) tries to cross the 152-km-long double fence on the border of Serbia and Hungary. In Greece, 15-year-old Afghan ‘SK’ is just at the beginning of his journey. All over Europe, we meet kids who have already tried uncountable times to do ‘the game’ and are now stuck, like Iranian Mo, Pakistani Yaseen, Afghan Fouad and Iraqi Mustafa. In Bosnia and Herzegovina, Syrian Hammoudi, at 14 the youngest of them all, recounts his attempt to pass the ‘last level’. In the same camp, brothers Jano (18) and Shiro (15) from Syria are preparing for their final move. Meanwhile in Ventimiglia, Faiz (17) from Darfur is doubting whether to try to cross into France once again.
Shadow Game is a mosaic story in which the experiences of many young refugees on the road are forged together into one universal tale: a modern Odyssey. Will they overcome the numerous obstacles they face? And will they find a new home?
The film will be screened in Dutch cinemas from May 27th 2021. If you want to know when and where, sign up for our newsletter and we will keep you updated!