Zana, an Albanian woman, carries a heavy past of family violence from which she has escaped on her late teens. Now she is on her mid thirties and lives in Turin with Dejan her Macedonian partner, a charismatic and violent man, seven years older than her. One day Dejan vanishes. She is shattered and tries to understand what lies behind this sudden decision. For a while she only finds that Dejan has hidden her from several secrets. Everything suddenly changes when Zana sees in the street an unusual poster with Dejan's face. To her surprise the author is Laleh a young and attractive Afghan woman. Laleh has recognized Dejan in the street of Turin, he was one of the most ferocious militia men dressed in black that beat up refugees caught crossing the border in the woods with the help of attack dogs. Zana is shaken and confused. She still cannot believe that it was his Dejan. Zana decides to go to fetch him. She departs and arrives in Barge a lost town under a grey mountain. She confronts Dejan. He denies all the accusations. At his home she finally succeeds to make Dejan reveal his past. But he does it with all his violence. Dejan shows Zana how he humiliated the refugees that crossed the country border. Zana terrorized and injured escapes his house in the middle of the night. Back in Turin Zana finds the courage. Together with Laleh they prepare themselves to go to the police station.
The themes that have always fascinated me in my work as a director are those in which human beings challenge the adversities of their social and cultural heritage. In the film Shadow of the dog I want to enter into the inner mechanisms of suffering. Too often we live anchored to pains that we can't overcome: we persist, we lie to ourselves, we rebel, but inexorably we go back to relive what tears us apart. So does Zana, our protagonist, unable to leave behind her relationship with Dejan and the violence that has haunted her throughout her life.