The first clip from Eimi Imanishi’s directorial debut “Nomad Shadow” has been released as the film prepares for its world premiere at the 50th Toronto Film Festival.
The drama follows a young woman’s difficult homecoming after being deported from Spain to Western Sahara, the territory she left years earlier. The protagonist faces rejection from both the cultural environment she tried to escape and the family members who remain bitter about her original departure. Her efforts to maintain her identity while navigating traditional expectations only deepen the rift with her past life.
“We’re thrilled to premiere ‘Nomad Shadow,’ one of the first fiction films set in Western Sahara, at Toronto,” said producers Shrihari Sathe, Belén Sánchez Silvero, Queralt Pons Serra, Damon Owlia, Jayne Baron Sherman, Virginie Lacombe and Eric Dupont. “At a time when deportations and forced removals are destroying lives worldwide, we’re proud to bring this timely and deeply human story of return out into the world starting with the wonderful audiences in Toronto.”
The Toronto premiere marks a homecoming of sorts for Imanishi, who previously brought her short film “Battalion to My Beat” to the festival in 2016.
Imanishi said: “It’s wonderful to be back with the festival’s legendary audiences and to be able to fulfill my dream of bringing them to Western Sahara and immersing them in its world as I know it.”
Lead actor Nadhira Mohamed, who headlines the film, draws from lived experience having been raised in Sahrawi refugee camps in Algeria’s Tindouf region. She has spent over a decade in social services work, currently partnering with the Spanish Red Cross to assist asylum seekers.
“I joined ‘Nomad Shadow’ as it reflects, from a woman’s perspective, the journey that many migrants face,” Mohamed said. “This is why I wanted to play this role, it is the story of many people I have met, and continue to meet, every day.”
Mohamed’s previous acting credit includes a role in 2011’s “Wilaya,” helmed by Pedro Pérez Rosado and produced by José María Morales.
Imanishi serves as both writer-director and producer alongside Sathe, Sánchez Silvero, Pons Serra, Owlia, Baron Sherman, Lacombe and Dupont. The executive producer roster includes Peter Howard, Gregory Franklin, Yacine Laloui and Julia Thompson.
The international co-production spans multiple companies: Dialectic in the U.S., Spain’s Un Capricho de Producciones and Peculiar Films, plus France’s Virginie Films and Incognito Films.
Financing came through Spain’s ICAA and the European Union’s NextGenerationEU program, with additional backing from Catalonia’s ICEC, along with support from prestigious institutions including Sundance Institute, Film Independent, The Gotham Film & Media Institute, and cultural ministries from both the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic and Algeria.
The project developed through several industry labs, including works-in-progress programs in Cologne, Sofia, and Barcelona.
Watch the clip here:
