Shadow

This film from world-renowned ensemble Back to Back wonders whether an AI-led future society will further disenfranchise the disability community.

Based on their acclaimed stage production The Shadow Whose Prey the Hunter Becomes, this compelling drama from the Geelong-based ensemble Back to Back – recent recipients of the International Ibsen Award, known as the Nobel Prize of theatre – follows a trio of intellectually disabled activists who hold a town meeting to weigh up the impacts of artificial intelligence. Fearing the worst, they devise plans to safeguard their community and the world, only for their discussion to descend into chaos. Eventually, they discover that their greatest threat is right there with them in the room.

Winner of the Visions section’s Audience Award at this year’s SXSW, Shadow was directed by Back to Back’s celebrated artistic director Bruce Gladwin and brought to life by a cast and crew almost entirely made up of creatives with disability. An innovative, confronting drama, the film ponders inequality, prejudice, and individual and collective responsibility in the face of crisis, and is an exciting exemplar of authentic community-led storytelling.