Els van Driel

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.

Brazilian boy Gabriel Matos is still very young when he learns that the 2014 World Cup will be held in his home country. He had no way of knowing that his life would be turned upside down by then. To transport hundreds of thousands supporters to the football stadium, a new rail line is being developed to run straight through his neighborhood. Houses are being demolished, entire families are forced to move and even the children’s local football pitch will soon disappear. For Gabriel this is a nightmare. He is angry at the inequality in his city and posts self-made footage of bulldozers tearing down his neighborhood on a blog. By becoming a journalist he tries to stand up for his rights.

When he was just 14, Sajid Khan Nasiri fled Afghanistan alone. After a two-year journey filled with danger and hardships – which he minutely documented on his phone camera – he arrives in Belgium to seek asylum. There, a whole new struggle begins. Intimate sequel to the prize-winning Shadow Game.

Mohammed—nicknamed Hammoudi—is 14 when he flees Syria. He and his older brother leave their mother and sisters behind and mainly walk all the way from Syria to Europe. It is a long and tough journey on which they encounter dangerous obstacles such as minefields, wild animals and violent border guards.

Messing with fireworks, ring and run and a lot of football practice. This makes Ky really happy, but she has also been unhappy for years because she has a girl's body. Last summer Ky finally managed to tell her parents she wants to become a boy, and would like to have a different name: Niels. Together with her friend Sterre, who used to be called Tibor and therefore has a boy's body, they tell their new secondary school class that they are transgender children. It is the beginning of a new life as Niels. 'How Ky turned into Niels': the search to find out who you are and the right to be yourself, about boys and girls stuff, hormones and more of those confusing things.

In Uganda, 16-year-old Allen Tumusiime learned that she was worth nothing as a girl. It was an oppressive situation, as if she were in a box that prescribed the limits of her existence. She has been living in the Netherlands for two years now. She has found a way out of her repressed existence and now stands in the spotlight with her own choreography. Allen takes you into her story with her dance: This is me. She wants to show people that you don’t have to let people decide for you what they have in mind for you. Instead, you should show who you are and follow your own heart.

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