1. Art and Diseño

SYNOPSIS AND DIRECTOR’S STATEMENT
WHITE SHADOW is the story of Alias, a young albino boy on the run. After
witnessing his father’s murder, his mother sends him away to find refuge in the
city. He’s brought to the care of his uncle, Kosmos, a truck driver struggling with
a few small businesses. In the city, Alias is a quick learner, selling sunglasses,
DVDs and mobile phones. He is fond of his uncle’s daughter, Antoinette,
although his uncle disapproves. Gradually the city becomes no different than
the bush and wherever Alias travels the same rules of survival apply.
Since 2007 it has become known that Albinos in Tanzania have become a
commodity – human targets of a lucrative and sinister trade. Witch doctors
offer thousands of dollars for albino body parts which are believed to bring
good fortune, prosperity and the ability to cure any illness. As a result,
Tanzanian albinos, including children, have been murdered by gangs of men
who hack off arms, legs or genitals. Some will pay from $500 to $5000 for
an albino limb while the average annual income in Tanzania is $442. There
is a saying in East Africa, “Albinos don’t die, they just disappear.” Seventythree such documented killings have occurred in the past two years as well as
hundreds of unreported attacks since 2007.
“While preparing to teach in Dar Es Salaam, I learned about the hunting
of albinos in East Africa. I decided a film must be made: a real chronicle of a
young person with a price on his head, a person who has to urgently become
aware of his own condition against events that can end his life. In a certain
circumstance, you can witness what it feels to be a beast to react, to be alert
to your utmost ability. You must accept the solitude of your dreams as your
friend and as a form of survival details of the plot should be only what the
character is able to understand and piece together, the politics and cultural
information should be delivered in a sensory form. To make the film work we
needed to be small, local and quick-moving, making sure everyone was safe
and brave.”
Noaz Deshe
CREDITS
CAST
Hamisi Bazili (Alias) / James Gayo (Kosmos) / Glory Mbayuwayu (Antoinette)
Salum Abdallah (Salum) / Tito D. Ntanga (Father) / Riziki Ally (Mother)
James P. Salala (Adin) / John S. Mwakipunda (Anulla)
FILMMAKERS
Director / Noaz Deshe
Screenplay / Noaz Deshe, James Masson
Cinematography / Armin Dierolf, Noaz Deshe
2nd Camera / Nassos Chatzopoulos
Editing / Noaz Deshe, Xavier Box, Robin Hill, Nico Leunen
Music / James Masson, Noaz Deshe
Sound / Elie Chansa, Niklas Kammertöns, Thomas Wallmann
Costumes / Sandra Leutert, Caren Miesenberger
Art Direction / Smith Kimaro, Deepesh Shapriya
Line Producers / Vanessa Ciszewski, Francesca Zanza
Producers / Ginevra Elkann, Noaz Deshe, Francesco Melzi d’Eril
Production / Asmara Films, Shadoworks, Mocajo Film
Coproducers / Alexander Wadouh, Matthias Luthardt, Babak Jalali
Coproduction / Chromosom Filmproduktion, French Exit,
Phantasma Films, Real2Reel, with the support of
Nipkow Programme, Goethe-Institut Tanzania,
Alliance française Dar es Salaam
Executive Producers / Ryan Gosling, Stefano Gallini-Durante
Associate Producers / Matteo Ceccarini, Eva Riccobono,
Luigi De Vecchi, Depart Foundation, Andreas Hommelsheim
Format / DCP, colour, 1:1.85
Runtime / 115 min.
FESTIVAL SELECTIONS & AWARDS
Venice Critics Week 2013 –
Winner of the Lion of the future for
the Best Film Debut
Selected in Sundance World Competition
2014
GENEVA Black Movie Festival –
Prix Boréal du Public
Göteborg IFF
VILNIUS IFF, KINO PAVASARIS
Curacao International Film Festival
Rotterdam
Jerusalem FF – competition
Zanzibar Film Festival 2014
Durban IFF – competition
KARLOVY VARY 2014 – Variety Critics’
Choice
Hungary – Cineast IFF
Finland – Helsinki Intl’ Film Festival Love & Anarchy
France – Etrange Film Festival competition
Istanbul Film Festival
Turkey – 21th Golden Boll International
Film Festival
BARCELONA INTERNATIONAL AUTEUR
FILM FESTIVAL
Canada – Calgary IFF
MOOOV Belgium – competition
NASHVILLE IFF – New Directors
competition
SFIFF – SAN FRANCISCO FILM SOCIETY –
SPECIAL JURY PRIZE
Seattle IFF
Art Film Fest – competition
Transilvania IFF, Cluj – SPECIAL JURY
MENTION
USA – SpectreFest Los Angeles
Canada – Montreal Nouveau Cinema IFF
Brazil – Sao Paulo IFF
UK – Africa in Motion
UK – Film Africa
Ireland – Cork IFF
USA – Denver IFF
Estonia – Tallinn Black Nights
International Film Festival “Zerkalo” –
BEST DIRECTOR AWARD
India – Goa IFF
Munich Film Festival – competition
Serbia – Auteur Film Festival – awarded
UK, East End Film Festival – competition
Austria – This Human World
Film Festival
Galway Film Fleadh – competition
Era New Horizons Wroclaw IFF –
competition
Mexico – Morelia IFF
ABOUT THE MAKING OF “WHITE SHADOW”,
AN INTERVIEW WITH DIRECTOR NOAZ DESHE
Why did you choose this story for your debut film?
The importance of this story and the challenges of making it work with little
means are a very strong engine. Maybe I can answer that in the future. Right
now I can say it came in loud and clear as something that is urgent. It must be
made and made now. The idea dictated the rules and gave an endless source
of energy to keep going into a lot of unknowns, which was very thrilling.
Why did you choose cinema as a means for your artistic expression?
Cinema is not the only way for me to communicate ideas, but if the
opportunity arrives to combine all these things I love, then it is a real joy.
There is a romantic wish that when you set out to make
a film, that it will take you far deep down into what you
do not know, expand and break what you do and teach
you things about how you perceive your surroundings.
If a story can offer, even a little, of that within your process, then you have
to do it. It is a way you can get lost inside ideas in their nonverbal form, a
vacation from daily thinking.
There are numerous documentaries about the stories of African
Albinos. Is there any one in particular who inspired you? Why did
you choose to make a fiction film instead?
The Tanzanian BBC journalist Vicky Ntetema, who won a Courage in
Journalism Award for her reporting on the situation of Albinos there,
was the first inspiration for me when I read about her.
The more I researched and read into the
subject, the clearer it became that the only
way I could create an experience of what it
means to be in a situation like this would be a
fiction film with strong roots in reality.
Fiction allows you to focus on small details and tune the story to the
essential. It also allows you to be free with experimentation because you
dance around your narrative thread.
You can go there with documentary, but it’s much harder to tune it exactly
as the idea dictates. Approaching the film with a screenplay allowed me to be
free with everything that is documentary around it, because I could keep the
narrative thread and be sure the characters’ stories would carry you through
the chaos. I knew that shooting in Africa demanded a very open approach.
Scheduling has to be fluid and nothing is certain, but you must accept
everything you lose as a gift. Your creative process is constantly negotiating
between reality and the plot points you wish to enforce upon it.
I find it a very thrilling way of working because it helps you check your
credibility with sensitive material, and helps you to see clues that you are
following the correct intuitive choices.
The screenplay was written very quickly, did you immediately
think of the character of Alias? Why did you choose the perspective
of a young boy to tell the story?
Yes, he was called Alias in the first thought and the main story was very
clear because it arrived one night as a set of images of Alias running and what
he does in order to hide. The images had to be written down and drawn. It
was called White Shadow, and it was a real chronicle of a young person with
a price on his head, a person who has to urgently become aware of his own
condition in the face of events that could end his life. This was very
vivid even as an abstract idea.
The film has a very distinctive style, in some aspects
it’s similar to reportage, such as the use of the handheld
camera, and in others it’s very refined, such as the work
with sound and the choices of frames and cuts. Why did
you choose this combined approach?
The only conscious technical decision I made was
to try to make it credible, that it should be truthful to
the details of that particular reality.
I don’t really know what that means, apart from describing something that
is not in sync and suddenly snaps into sync. It’s not one of those things you
find in the ether. It is very subjective. But based on intuitive reactions to the
research and a lot of fact checking – some things just look more right.
We had to be very reactive with all of the technical aspects. Heavy
equipment can weigh you down. It’s something to avoid when shooting with
non-professional actors and children in particular, so we kept that part very
light. We used mostly one camera except for big crowd scenes, and mostly
available light or hand held flashlights. Everything we shot had to be set up,
rehearsed and written. But once it is set up and everyone knows how they
maneuver, then you forget it all and react to it as if it’s happening in front
of you for the first time. It’s a very exciting dance between reacting and
forgetting. I enjoy being a participating audience so it’s a lot of fun for me to
work that way.
As for the music in the film, I wanted its role to be to emote the mental and
physical condition of Alias, to be an echo of his character. As with the story itself
the idea was to keep it experiential, to stay sensory and keep asking questions.
Can you talk about the casting process?
In 2010, a friend, Matthias Luthardt, invited me to join him to teach a short
film course in Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania’s capital in East Africa. Goethe Institute
Tanzania and Alliance Francaise were hosting us, and the objective was to
make a short film with a group of 40 local talents that had signed up. Having
a background as a researcher for other films, I began by reading all sources
of local news and blogs and I very quickly encountered an issue which takes
the center stage in Tanzania’s media, the human hunting and persecution of
Tanzanian albinos for witchcraft. From there, the idea for the film came very
quickly and I met many collaborators through the initial course and workshop.
Francaise gave us their building, and every night it was full of people
playing out, scenes from the film. Nassos Chatzopoulos, a Greek Tanzanian
Director and Cameraman who participated in the workshop, was our
anchor in Dar Es Salaam. He opened his home to us and brought all
his friends and colleagues to help us. He introduced me to Hashim
Rubanza who helped me cast the film. Hashim and I would go
during rush hour to a ferry that crosses from the rural to modern
part of the city.
There we would street cast, based on gut
feelings. For example, we walked into the fishmarket
and saw a guy that was sitting on a chair bossing all the
other fishermen and being very calm, and we invited
him to be one of the people in the gang.
It was an exhilarating guessing game – we challenged each other on how
many interesting strangers we could convince to come to a screen test.
We developed a spiel, and after a few hours we had a routine. Everyday we
played out abduction scenes and bank robberies, home invasions and love
spats with people that came from our street adventures. There was also
Andrew Panja, a great local character and our “fixer” that brought more
performers, usually his relatives. We ended up casting his brother. Tito, who
plays Alias’ father in the film, was the only person in the crew with regular stage
experience, as he is the head of a dance and song group that brings awareness
to the Albino cause, called The Albino Revolution Cultural Troupe. We traveled
around different cultural centers looking for the kids that would play Alias and
Salum. We did dream workshops where we first did a short interview then
we would talk about dreams. The kids that stuck out as storytellers stayed.
We were very lucky to meet Hamisi (who plays Alias) in a workshop we did
in collaboration with Tito. Hamisi was waiting for us, prepared with a song he
wrote about his life. We kept filming with him for a few days to make sure he
could work with preconditioned
situations. He was phenomenal. When I told him that we would make the
film with him, he nodded. A girl in the room asked him “Why are you not
smiling? Aren’t you happy?” He answered “It’s not necessary to smile in order
to show happiness” and then he laughed. That was it.
It was very hard to find the girl that would play Antoinette. We saw maybe
400 girls, whole schools came and we shot scenes with each and every one
of them. Glory Mbayuwayu came along with her twin sister and her mother.
Both Glory and her sister Grace are exceptional actresses possessing natural
professional behaviors as to how to approach working with people. They are
extremely smart and very focused. In her audition, I asked Glory to rob a bank
while Hamisi would play the teller. It was so impressive that we shot another
scene that brought me to tears. I understood she had a range and capability
to share emotions, raw and without any filters. When I tested her
against other actresses later it was clear that she was the only one
in the room. There was never a moment the camera did not wish
to follow her own story.
What were your most satisfying and most difficult
moments on set?
One day we changed our schedule at the last moment and went to
shoot in a different location. Where we did not go, a lion killed ten people.
The army shot him. I keep thinking about this lion running through a very
poor and condensed area. Maybe that was his first time and he is realizing
that humans are easy to catch, their skin is not tough like wild animals,
perhaps when it comes down to it he needs to do this more often because
he has been pushed away from his natural habitat, and at the moment of his
eureka, he gets shot by the army.
There were many difficult moments…
One night we heard artillery and found out that an old military weapons
depot was exploding. Missiles flew into the international airport and
surrounding villages. One of the kids that was acting in the film, Willy Wilson,
had to escape his home when bombs where landing on his head. He got hurt
and would not speak for a month. Crew members contracted malaria and
aggressive skin rashes, severe food poisoning. And never for one moment did
I think, we cannot do it. The doubts and worries keep you alert and solving
problems. The entire process is adjusting to new realities every day.
The entire crew was extremely committed. Everyone was on a mission
pushing each other to make it work. No one questioned the reasons or way
to make it. We kept up that energy and it kept us going. There were times we
had to shoot with many people. It is a big test of your conviction.
You knock on every door and announce a village meeting and then bring
everyone into the process and make something out of nothing, with a group
of people you met a few hours ago and suddenly all agree to share
one fantasy. And everyone has his own. It is, in its positive form, the
most playful and beautiful thing humans can do. Drop everything
that weighs them down and commit to a total fantasy and play.
Adapted from an interview by Anna Maria Pasetti in
the 2013 Venice Film Festival Critic’s Week Catalogue
ABOUT THE FILMMAKERS
NOAZ DESHE (Director/Co-Writer/Music/Cinematography)
Noaz Deshe is a Berlin and Los Angeles-based filmmaker, musician, artist
and producer. He composed the soundtrack of “Frontier Blues” (2009), the
debut feature by Iranian director Babak Jalali. His debut graphic novel In Case
We Never Meet is awaiting publication. “White Shadow“ is his debut feature
film. He enjoys very much to be involved in every aspect of the movie, he
shoot and compose as well.
Shot a documentary in Gazza – Area K
Directed a Video art experimental short about Hermanphrodite dreams
called BoysGirls (AFI film fest)
Directed one hour long Sci/Fi documentary Search Agent Zerox
Worked as Cinematographer, Writer, Composer (Frontier Blues, Toto and
his sisters, White shadow)
Executive producer - Lost River
2010 performed what he dubs as “haunted folk music” in character as
“Ghost Cowboy” served as the opening act for Dead Man’s Bones.
JAMES MASSON (Co-Writer/Music)
Multi-instrumentalist and Composer James Masson is originally from
Australia. Based in Europe for the past decade, his musical projects range
from the atmospherics of funereal act Sibling Lovers to the cacophony of
Danmatsuma, an international group based in Melbourne at the turn of
the century.
James began constructing his own musical instruments at age
5, building an electric stringed instrument out of Meccano and
parts scavenged from his Grandfather’s collection of electronic
components. In the 90’s, James created experimental films using
16mm, projectors and video processed through guitar effects. In
these works the soundtrack was generated by the image directly.
Bringing experience gained behind mixing desks from Melbourne to
Berlin to bear on his work as a composer of music is only natural for this
Antipodean, who marries painfully beautiful turns of musical phrase with
noise; balancing compositions delicately on the knifes edge between beauty
and terror. ”White Shadow” is James’ first feature film composition.
ABOUT THE FILMMAKERS (CONTINUED)
ARMIN DIEROLF (Cinematographer)
Born in 1978 in Waiblingen, south of Germany, Armin Dierolf learned his
trade under acclaimed cinematographers Sophie Maintigneux (Eric Rohmer),
Hans Fromm (Christian Petzold), Christian Berger (Michael Haneke) and
Michael Ballhaus A.S.C (Martin Scorsese) at the German Film and Television
Academy Berlin (dffb). In addition to numerous short films, Armin lensed
the documentary features “In the year of the dog” (Ursula Scheid), “Dancing
Alone” (Birnur Pilavci) and “Lighter Than orange” (Matthias Leupold, 2012).
After graduating from the dffb in 2011, Armin was Director of Photography on
fiction features “Cold Sunday” (Ivan Pokorny), “Petting Zoo” (Micah Magee)
and “Sivas” (Kaan Müdjeci).
Armin Dierolf was awarded the German Cinematography Award while still
a student in 2006. His work has been screened at Cannes; Camerimage in
Lodz; the Venice Film Festival; and was awarded “Best Cinematography” at
the International Short Film Festival Sehsüchte in 2009. In 2012, Armin’s dffb
thesis film “Headlock” (Johan Carlsen) won the New Berlin Film Award for
best mid- length feature and in 2013, the documentary “Dancing Alone” won
the New Berlin Film Award for best feature documentary.
The TIDE Experiment is a collective venture gathering several players in the
European film industry. The main goal is to release films simultaneously in at least
5 territories using Day-and-Date distribution models: meaning the film launch on
VOD platforms and cinemas on the same date.
More info available on www.thetideexperiment.eu
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