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IN THIS WORLD Send This Review to a Friend
Director Michael Winterbottom's "In This World," showcased at the 2003 Toronto International Film Festival, has the power of fiction and the veracity you might find in a documentary. Winterbottom focuses on the plight of two Afghan refugee cousins, who set out from Pakistan as illegal immigrants bound for London. Their saga is spellbinding, and in making the film, scripted by Tony Grisoni, the director has used non-professional actors as his leads.
The reality is aided immeasurably by the decision to shoot with a small digital video camera in available light. The result is startlingly effective. The leads were recruited in Peshawar, Pakistan. Enayatullah plays the older cousin, Enayat, and Jamal Udin Torabi, discovered taking English classes, plays the teenager Jamal who goes along because he speaks English.
The journey depicted is a harrowing one as the two make their way by entrusting themselves to people smugglers, just as thousands of other illegal immigrants do from various countries in their effort to find better lives. The danger is great, especially when the travelers are hidden for a long period of time in a container being shipped by truck and at risk of death by suffocation. Winterbottom movingly captures the atmosphere of the perilous journey from Pakistan to Turkey to Trieste to France and onward.
"In This World" emerges as a social document as well as intense drama, and one will long remember Jamal after we have followed his determination to survive and get to London against all odds. The film arrives with the credential of having won the 2003 Berlin Film Festival Golden Bear award. A Sundance Channel release.
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