The shadows symbolising animals in the animated film Amy (KarlijnScholten Animation, 2011) represent evil emotions and actions of adults, such as violence, child abuse and rape. This study examines Amy as an example of the symbolic and digital expression of shadows to reflect the inner world of individuals. The film is analysed through mise-en-scène analysis, focusing on light and shadow. Based on the example of the film Amy, it is revealed that the use of light and shadow as aesthetic elements in today's world, where digital computer technology has developed, is more than the natural and artificial lighting possibilities in the history of art; thanks to the use of digital light that allows the creation of dark and shadowy areas, it has become easier to represent the characters with expressionist projection. In addition, the distribution of the film on an online video platform such as YouTube, the most widely used online video platform in the world, brings social-cultural issues, such as child abuse and violence, which are both local and global, to a transnational level with its aesthetic similarity to the German Expressionism of the early twentieth century.
Keywords: Shadow, digital cinema, German expressionism, transnationalism, child abuse