Variety Critics’ Choice: Europe Now! 2014 / White Shadow / Italy, Germany, Tanzania 2013
Veering wildly between earthy vérité and near-ecstatic surrealism, Noaz Deshe’s staggering, Tanzanian-set tale of a resourceful albino adolescent learning to survive in a community brutally geared against his kind is stylistically reckless in the best possible way – a quasi-horror film that evokes a world physically and spiritually out of balance.
The waking nightmare of the African albino muti trade – whereby albinos are hunted for their supposedly restorative body parts – is a tricky subject to film without leaning too far in the directions of exploitation or exoticism, but artist-turned-filmmaker Noaz Deshe’s staggering debut feature strikes the necessary balance with vision to burn. Veering wildly between earthy verite and near-ecstatic surrealism, this Tanzanian-set tale of a resourceful albino adolescent (Hamisi Bazili) learning to survive in a community brutally geared against his kind is stylistically reckless in the best possible way – a quasi-horror film that evokes a world physically and spiritually out of balance. The camera is itself a near-performative presence, its frequent, agile switches from high-definition docu-realism in one scene to color-saturated expressionism in the next underlining the young protagonist’s shifting sense of security and self-awareness.
Guy Lodge
115 min / Color, DCP
Director Noaz Deshe
/ Screenplay Noaz Deshe, James Masson
/ Dir. of Photography Armin Dierolf, Noaz Deshe
/ Music James Masson, Noaz Deshe
/ Editor Noaz Deshe, Xavier Box, Robin Hill, Nico Leunen
/ Producer Ginevra Elkann, Noaz Deshe, Francesco Melzi d’Eril
/ Production Asmara Films, Shadoworks, Mocajo Film
/ Coproduction Chromosom Filmproduktion, French Exit, Phantasma Films, Real2Reel
/ Cast Hamisi Bazili, James Gayo, Glory Mbayuwayu, Salum Abdallah
/ Contact Premium Films
Noaz Deshe (b. 1968, Israel) is a director, screenwriter, composer, cinematographer, painter, and video artist who lives in Berlin and Los Angeles. He has shot several experimental short films in the genre of docu-fiction (Boysgirls, 2001; Search Agent Zerox, 2001). As a composer he is best known for the soundtrack to Frontier Blues (2009), the debut film by Iranian director Babak Jalali. He has also made several music videos throughout the world (Germany, England, USA), and his paintings and video art have been shown at numerous European galleries. His feature-length debut White Shadow was screened at Venice and Sundance.
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Noaz Deshe
Director of Photography, Film Director, Screenwriter
Rossella Rinaldi
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Monique Catalino
Film Institution Rep.
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