In This World
Programme Notes

DIRECTED BY: Michael Winterbottom

STARRING: Jamal Udin Torabi .... Himself
Enayatullah .... Himself
Hiddayatullah .... Pakistan - Enayat's brother
Jamau .... Pakistan - Enayat's father
Mirwais Torabi .... Jamal's older brother
Amanullah Torabi…. Jamal's younger brother

RUNNING TIME: 1 hour 28 minutes

LANGAUAGE: Pashtu and Farsi
Subtitled in English

Michael Winterbottom is one of those Directors who seem to be able to turn their hand to a variety of topics and still produce consistently good results. He started his career in film as an editor for Thames Television. He then worked with Lindsay Anderson on a 1986 Free Cinema episode in the British Cinema series. Two documentaries followed - both on the Swedish Master Ingmar Bergman.

He made his debut feature, Butterfly Kiss, in 1994. This road movie starred Amanda Plummer and Saskia Reeves behaving badly. Go Now, with Robert Carlyle, was his next feature and then came Jude, based on the novel by Thomas Hardy, with an excellent Christopher Eccleston. Welcome To Sarajevo, is similar in format to In This World. It is a feature shot in Bosnia in documentary fashion with handheld digital video cameras. Based on the real life story of ITN reporter Michael Nicholson adopting a Bosnian orphan it is a superb film and well worth watching. I Want You is another feature well worth looking out for. The critically acclaimed Wonderland, is a fascinating portrait of young people living in London during the Nineties. In spite of being reunited with Christopher Eccleston, With Or Without You was a bit disappointing, but Winterbottom then bounced back with The Claim (based on another novel by Thomas Hardy) and then the equally wonderful 24 Hour Party People.

At the 2003 Berlin Film Festival In This World won the Golden Bear for Best Film. A remarkable road movie following two Afghan boys, Jamal and Enayat, going on their journey from a Pakistani refugee camp on the Afghanistan border to Kilburn in London. Shot on digital video and transferred to widescreen 35mm format, you get the impression that you are travelling with them on their quest for a better life. On their way to England they have to overcome a lot of obstacles, like dodgy refugee smugglers who ask a fortune for their services and policemen who can only be bribed by giving away their walkman. We see the guys travelling in all sorts of ramshackle vehicles, sometimes completely blocked-in by boxes of oranges or risking their lives hanging underneath a heavy lorry.

Occasionally they are surprised in a positive way; by a young boy in Teharan, for instance, who gives them new shoes. In the beginning we hear a short voice over giving general information about the 14 million political and economical refugees in the world, 1 million of these are living in a camp in Peshawar, where our two main characters are coming from.

Then In This World simply shows the journey of the two boys and observes with a sharp eye the local cafes, mountains, scenery, football-playing children, the beauty and hardship on people's faces. It's done in an utterly cinematic and involving way. The shaky journey in the cars are intercut with moments of silence and reflection, by focussing on the boys looking out of the window or enjoying the view from their rest place. This gives the film the right flow and rhythm.

We travel with Jamal and Enayat and get an idea how it is to be constantly on your guard. Towns we pass are Quetta, Tehran, Istanbul, Trieste, Paris, Sangatte and London. At the last part of the story something tragic happens similar to the death of Tamil refugees who died in a lorry recently coming to the UK, because of a lack of oxygen. When Jamal arrives in London you can see the hope in his eyes, but soon this evaporates, because of the cold and indifferent approach of the British bureaucrats.

Comparable to Pavel Pawlikowski's excellent film Last Resort which deals with the same injustice and carelessness. This anti-immigrant xenophobia inspired Winterbottom to make this sober, beautifully observed and essential film. In This World, which comes across so straightforward and subtle, must have been a hell of a job to organise by producers Andrew Eaton and Anita Overland. Logistically it must have been very difficult to shoot in so many different countries that each have their own rules and regulations.

As for the meaning of the title, I can't tell you that without giving away too much of this brave film, so you should see it for yourself.

www.talkingpix.co.uk with additions.

Back

© Keswick Film Club 2003
Keswick Film Club is a voluntarily-run, not-for-profit organisation.
Registered Charity Number 1083395