British Council Logo UK Films Database
Project Detail

The Shadow Scholars

The Shadow Scholars
The Shadow Scholars

Synopsis

Oxford Professor Patricia Kingori travels to Kenya, where she uncovers the murky, multi-billion global underworld of essay-writing. Thousands of young and highly educated Kenyans – overqualified and chronically underemployed – have found lucrative work writing essays for students around the globe who are able and willing to pay for them. It’s a complex portrait of an issue that undermines the foundations of a pillar of humanity: education.
Official Selection BFI London Film Festival 2024 - Documentary Competition - World premiere
Official Selection IDFA (International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam) 2024 - International premiere
Official Selection CPH:DOX 2025
Official Selection Nairobi Film Festival 2025
Official Selection Tribeca Film Festival 2025

Details

Year
2024
Type of project
Features
Running time
98 min
Director
Eloise King
Producer
Eloise King, Anna Smith Tenser, Bona Orakwue, Tabs Breese, Riel Roch-Decter
Co-Producer
Rienkje Attoh
Executive Producer
Steve McQueen, Patricia Kingori
Editor
Cinzia Baldesarri, Julian Quantrill
Screenwriter
Eloise King
Director of Photography
Jonas Mortensen, Anna Patarakina, Jermaine Edwards, Joel Honeywell, Justin Ervin
Sound
Sound Designer: Chad Orororo

Categories

Documentary

Production Status

Complete

Production Company

Supported by BFI Doc Society, Film4, Field of Vision Fund, Firelight Media Fellowship, Wellcome, Kaplan International, Film & TV Charity John Brabourne Filmmaker Award, Logan Non-fiction Fellowship

A White Teeth Films and Lammas Park Production

WhiteTeeth Films

c/o Dogwoof
Ground Floor, Overseas House
19-23 Ironmonger Row
London
EC1V 3QN

Sales Company

Dogwoof

Ground Floor, Overseas House
19-23 Ironmonger Row
London
EC1V 3QN

Page updates

This page was last updated on 24th November 2025. Please let us know if we need to make any amendments or request edit access by clicking below.

Suggest amendments

See also

You may also be interested in other relevant projects in the database.

A man, Chris Vui, in a suit looks at his phones and hold his head. There is an overlay photo of him in rugby kit looking at the camera. The title "Spiked" sits inside an injecting seringe Spiked

Director: Axel Haudiquet

Year: 2027

What happens when a world-class athlete, at the peak of his career, tests positive for steroids he’s never heard of?

Human Rights Sport
Oceans Apart Oceans Apart

Director: Axel Haudiquet, Callum Drummond

Year: 2020

Presented by former Samoa rugby player Dan Leo, who sacrificed his own career to confront corruption in his national union, OCEANS APART looks at the bond between the Pacific and modern Rugby and reveals the darker side of the sport.

Human Rights Sport
A woman walking down a path towards an open horizon with the sky above Under This Sky

Director: Abigail Hopkins

Year: 2024

A story about cancer, trauma, healing and hope. Two years have gone by since ABIGAIL was diagnosed with Stage Three Colorectal Bowel cancer. Whilst earlier video diaries look at her cancer treatment, "Under This Sky", expands ABIGAIL’S story by using the camera and recorder as her “eyes” and “ears” to document her personal cancer survivorship, her creative and healing process and the world around her. Using eclectic filmmaking styles, "Under This Sky" explores our relationship with ourselves, each other and our world.

Biography Disabilities Experimental Woman Director