Shadow World

A shocking analysis of the international arms trade, which shapes government policy, breeds corruption, undermines Western democracies and causes widespread human suffering. Governments, security services, research institutes and arms manufacturers are all complicit because they all have something to gain from a permanent state of war.

Based on the book by former African National Congress parliamentarian and anti-corruption activist Andrew Feinstein, and told through the experiences of prominent politicians, war correspondents, investigative journalists, peace activists and arms dealers, Shadow World demonstrates that corruption is not a dirty side effect of the arms trade, but its defining factor. Far from representing our hopes, politicians sell us fear in the interest of the very corporations that profit from war.

By shedding light on how our everyday reality is being constructed, the film argues that we have privatized the function of war. As a result, corruption determines the economic and foreign policies of some of the biggest countries in the world, making sure there’s permanent war on the agenda.