In The Shadow of the Sun

Year: 2012
Country: UNITED KINGDOM, USA, TANZANIA
Run Time: 85 minutes

In April 2006, a 35-year-old albino woman was murdered in Tanzania after witch doctors spread the belief that an albino’s skin and body parts could bring fortune and good luck. After that, everything changed for the estimated 170,000 Tanzanians born with albinism. Already facing rejection from their own families and being killed at birth, albinos in Tanzania are now battling an ever-increasing murder rate due to superstitions among the uneducated populace. IN THE SHADOW OF THE SUN chronicles two stories of survival and the search for security in a world where human beings are being ridiculed and hunted with full public knowledge. Young Vedastus is a student who receives constant threats and scorn and moves to an island in Lake Victoria where albinos have made a retreat. Josephat is a strong-willed family man looking to blaze a trail to acceptance for his fellow albinos by bravely speaking to the villagers where the murders are taking place. Tracking these two and more over the course of five years, IN THE SHADOW OF THE SUN is a remarkable documentary of a civil rights movement resembling our own from the 60s. Powerful and heartbreaking, uplifting and hopeful, this is a film about people referred to as “ghosts” and the strength of their spirit. (In Swahili with subtitles.) – T.W.

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