Film Synopsis: Shadow World

This visually dazzling exploration of the global arms trade lays bare a shocking nexus of lobbying, corruption, slush funds and illicit deals.

Mixing archival footage with interviews with leading journalists, philosophers, whistleblowers and, most chillingly, a jailed ex-arms dealer, filmmaker Johan Grimonprez revisits over forty years of armed conflicts and interventions. Encompassing the Iran-Contra affair, the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, the War on Terror and the BAE Al Yamamah arms-for-oil scandal, Shadow World highlights a nefarious and uniquely destructive dynamics of profiteering. It exposes how the business of war has fostered corruption, dictated economic and foreign policies and undermined our democratic institutions.

Existing where art, documentary, history and politics intersect, this film weaves a seamless narrative of breath-taking scope, that ultimately exhorts viewers to re-write the story, demand greater transparency and achieve meaningful oversight.

This film was supported by the Bertha Film Fund, Bertha / Doc Society Connect Fund.