«Shadow Game»: the reality of illegal miners

Saturday movie platforms - Fanny Agostino

After their medium-length film De deal (2018) devoted to the agreement between the European Union and Turkey to control migratory flows between the Greek islands and Anatolia, the Dutch duo of Eefje Blankevoort and Els van Driel continue their examination of the migration issue through its human and social dimensions. As field investigators, they invite us to understand and follow the dangerous gamble taken by a group of young teenagers. A one-way adventure they call «the walking game»: the challenge of crossing the ultra-secure borders of the Balkan route to reach Europe. At any cost. An unprecedented look at unaccompanied minor migrants and their journey.

In Greece, a young boy is swimming in the Mediterranean. It’s a semblance of everyday life shared with vacationers thronging the beaches of Athens. Sk is sixteen. He isn’t really a foreigner like the others. The teenager left Afghanistan seven months ago. On foot, he traveled the roughly five thousand kilometers that separated him from Europe. With his smartphone, he stays in touch with his loved ones. In fact, it was during a phone call that the news broke: the big day will be Thursday. The day before, he had failed. He lost the «game.» Sk doesn’t comment on the rounds of Mario Kart from his last night out with friends. The only race that interests him is the one that involves sneaking past the fences right under the border guards’ noses, surviving for several days without food or water in the forest… To earn the right to risk his life once again facing a new wall.

The Voice and Gaze of the Invisible

Durrab, Sk, Faiz, Jano and his brother Shiro, Mohammed, and the others. Each has a unique story and comes from a different country. The settings, the places they stay, and their fellow travelers all change. But the relentless pattern never breaks. From point A, they must make their way to point B, which will become a new starting point toward a new destination—toward the unknown. After a long period of research—Eefje Blankevoort is first and foremost a journalist—the filmmakers reached out to these children left to fend for themselves. They forged bonds with these refugees, which allowed them to gain their trust. That trust is not easily given. Invisible among the invisible, the children receive no special treatment. In the camps, they are mixed in with the other adults, facing violence and degrading living conditions. Yet, without any points of reference or primary caregivers, they agreed to be filmed by Els van Driel and her collaborator.

For as long as possible, the filmmakers follow these boys to the limits dictated by the need to avoid detection and the danger of death. The documentary also takes a narrative approach. The protagonists recount to the audience the failed attempts and successes of the «walking game.» All the children share their experiences in static shots. Scarred by a reality of which they alone are the custodians, these poignant sequences allow us to say which is overshadowed by the impossibility of show. They shed light on a reality that is rarely addressed in debates on European migration policy.   

Migration in the 4G Era

The documentary reveals surprising details about these refugees’ travel conditions. Their attempts to cross from one border to another are meticulously planned. One of the essential items for the journey is a smartphone. Forget the old-fashioned compass! Routes are meticulously mapped out on Google Maps. Of course, using connected devices increases the risk of being tracked and sent back to the starting point. The internet is preferred over the good old-fashioned phone line. Smugglers, family, and friends are contacted via messaging apps like WhatsApp or Messenger. But the feature film also capitalizes on its subjects’ technological savvy by incorporating videos and images captured during those fateful moments. Like a travel journal, these short, hastily shot video clips document moments of anxiety and fear near the borders.

In contrast, they also bring the skeptical viewer back to a reality that is so different and yet so close to our own daily lives: on TikTok or Snapchat, emojis accompany impromptu dance moments in a truck or a video posted by a user filming themselves under a moving train car less than two meters above the ground.

On camera, Sk shares an anecdote from his past life. His passion for Doraemon, a Japanese manga he used to read at his uncle's house. The little blue cat in the series has a door that takes him anywhere—he just has to think of his destination to end up there. With a mischievous smile, Sk says he could really use one to get to Europe. Thanks to Shadow Game, his account reveals a reality that was previously unknown to us: his own.

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