I just watched this on an Emirates flight and I was compelled to write a review because it is so good. Actually it is terrifying masterpiece. This film is shot in the classic African way of cinematography by shooting in real settings with lots of amateur who perhaps did not know they where going to be cast in a movie. In doing so the whole film gives a sense of realism that is not usually experienced in film, but is common in old-school African cinema from West Africa. The core group of actors, especially the kids, have a playful and adaptive dialogue and interaction that draws us into feeling as if you know everything about them... I think that is what makes this so terrifying. This film deals with witchcraft, and why it is persistent in society. Not rural society, but modern urban society in Tanzania. And more specifically why people are willing to murder people, in particular children, to sell their body parts. The most interesting aspect of this film is that we see the spirit world, as real supernatural forces juxtaposed against the modern, yet technological wasteland that is the slums of Dar-Es-Salaam, Tanzania. So to understand this film you need to understand that there are many scenes where dead people are narrating to us and other characters are communicating to supernatural forces. In a timeless, omniscient perspective of this film you are constantly questioning yourself, and your perspectives of the world searching for some kind of redemptive quality in humanity. Is there any? Watch the film and find out!
Review of White Shadow
