The Shadows

To apply for asylum, Refugee 214 must tell his story. With him in the room are a man from his new country, and the shadows of four loved ones who did not survive the journey.

214 reveals how he and his younger sister fled their homes and set off toward the border; how they met and suffered with friends, and lost them; and how the plight of the refugee is an experience that erases differences between individuals, even as it threatens to erase the individuals themselves. The only one left to tell the tale, 214 swallows his fears and relates what he and the shadows saw and did, in the hope that his life and the lives of the others won’t have been in vain.

Creators Zabus & Hippolyte present an intimate and heartrending look at one fictional refugee’s story, while encompassing the larger plight of displaced people.