Home for 'Shadows': 2008

Shadows: A Synopsis

Eight year-old Adiana is a very special little girl who has known nothing but love her whole life. Her mother Rachael, a renowned artist and writer of children’s fiction has long filled Adiana’s bedtime stories with tales of a young girl who is journeying to a mythical place called Amaranatha, a paradise of beauty and peace.

One night however Adiana’s world of security is shattered when both her parents are killed. Upon hearing of his parent’s death, Adiana’s much older brother Matthew returns home from Law School.

At his parent’s house Matthew meets Renee, a social worker in her early 30’s who has been looking after Adiana. Renee has been staying in the house, because it is her philosophy that things should change as little as possible for Adiana. Along these lines Renee hopes that Matthew will agree to stay with Adiana, and raise her. Renee has discovered through her own time with Adiana that she is a girl who possesses some very unique capabilities.

Matthew struggles with the idea of being a parent at such a young age to a girl he hardly knows. He loves Adiana, but he is torn between the stresses of life and his new responsibility, and he is unintentionally cold to her. In response Adiana more deeply embraces the make-believe world she has known through her mother’s stories. Surrounded by the images and fantasy her mother left behind, Adiana begins to inhabit that world straddling the line between the paradise and idealism of Amaranatha and the coldness of reality.

Matt begins to see Adiana become more engulfed in fantasy as she talks constantly of Amaranatha, and reads passages to him from their mother’s book. One day Matt comes up to Adiana’s room and outside he hears her talking with someone about wanting to go “there” to live with “them” and how this world “has no more light in it.” Assuming that she is with Renee or a friend he opens the door, but Adiana is alone. Adiana has taken the photo albums of her family and cut them up. Seeing this Matt is furious. He picks up a picture of his father and sees that Adiana has cut out their father’s shadow that is behind him on the wall. When asked about it she says “I didn’t like that man”.

Eventually we see Adiana packing items in a small backpack, and she writes something on a piece of paper. She travels to a beautiful field with a large tree. As we watch her walk and sing, the camera circles behind a tree and she disappears.

Matt arrives at the house and discovers Addy has not returned home from school. He finds a note on the kitchen table which reads “I want you to be happy. I’ve gone to be with them”. Terrified of what has happened, Matt looks for her for hours, and becomes frantic. He calls the police, and Renee. She reasons that Addy has run away from home, and will eventually return or be found, but days go by and there is no sign of her. Overcome with grief, Matthew falls into a deep depression.

He goes up to her room, and pulls back a sheet to see a breathtaking collage Addy has created from the families’ pictures. He starts to cry. As he crumbles to the ground we see a shadow on the wall. It dances slightly as if coming to life for a moment, but then becomes still again.

Finally one night, after Adiana has been missing for several days, Matthew organizes the house, to prepare to sell it. Moving about the house we Adiana appear in the doorway behind him. Matt is overjoyed to see her. He embraces her and asks her where she has been. She says that she’s been with “them”. Matt asks her who, but before he can get an answer she says “they followed me”. Then she whispers for him to “close the door”. Before he can protest she screams “Close the door!” Matt looks out and sees something stirring in the darkness. Shadows twitter strangely and then he sees one glide across the ground towards the house. Matthew cannot believe his eyes as the shadow rises up into three-dimensional space. Other shadows appear which also move towards them. Terrified, Matthew shuts the door.

Trapped in the house, Adiana explains to Matt that these are the shadow creatures from their mother’s story that live in the dark forest along the borders of Amaranatha in a place called Tamaza. Tamaza is a place where the spirits of those who have lost their souls to grief reside. They became shadows and they feed on the despair, sadness and bad memories of those trying to complete the journey to Amaranatha. As they surround the house Matthew must fight the desire to surrender to his sadness, and lose himself to the creatures. Finally he promises Adiana that he will never leave her. He sees at last that he needs her just as much, if not more, than she needs him.

Seeing that this is the answer, and believing that Addy has summoned these demons into existence, Matthew tells her that she can send them away. She explains to him however, that he has brought them there, not her. She tells Matthew that she was with their parents in Amaranatha; that she went to be with them because she thought Matthew would be happier if he didn’t have to worry about her. She explains however, that her parents told her to come back, to rescue him from his sadness, and from the shadows of the past that would haunt him.

Together Matt and Addy find a way to chase the shadows from the real world, and learn to not let despair and sadness take over their existence.