Shadow Game (2021)

Directed by: Eefje Blankevoort, Els van Driel | 90 minutes | documentary

‘Shadow Game’ offers a calm, emotionally charged series of accounts of the wanderings of asylum seekers in Europe. Reports of pointless waiting, accompanied here and there by sombre music, a sweet image of a minor asylum seeker who finds a stray kitten or stumbles through the snow. Regardless of the viewer’s personal opinion, it doesn’t take much to sense the tightness of the situation.

Tightness that is in any case adequately shown; whether it’s crossing a border or a phone call from elsewhere, these guys knowingly don’t have a destination that is unconditionally welcoming: they roam anyway, one step further from home or closer to a new settlement; sometimes in reverse. That makes watching a meaningful experience.

There’s little point in convincing an arthouse audience that this is still news, assuming this documentary has that target audience. Of course not. As a maker, you can be a close observer and slow down the viewer’s senses for an hour or more. In this this visually strong documentary succeeds more than well, with an approach of meaningless understanding.

Idealism is a position, the latter cannot be blamed on the makers. They show humanity, but do not judge. A journalistic approach is also not necessary in the sense of adversarial, but possible by omitting (too) conscious control of the viewer. He can see for himself what is going on here, and is intelligent enough to know that these guys jumped into the abyss for a reason.