In This World Reviews

Based on the true story of two young Afghan refugees and their journey towards a best place on the earth for their better future. This, documentary style adventure-drama of a British movie about illegal migrants from various refugee camps from middle-east chronicles as theirs lifetime voyage begins. From the director of Angelina Jolie starer 'A Mighty Heart', once more time he portrayed the people of middle-east who wants to escape from their poverty. He managed to extract the best from the non-professional actors and made it a one of a best movie of all time about illegal human migration.

Jamal and Enayat are two Afghan refugees from the camp located on the Pakistan border. The Enayat's father decides to send him to London from his war torn country. Jamal joins him as their voyage to modern world commence. During their journey they have to cross many countries between two continents to reach their destination. They meet other people like them who traveling different directions seeking a fresh life to begin. With all the hurdles would they reach their destination or not is the remaining tale to explode.

We have heard many stories like this but this movie gives you a real experience with almost the realistic images in front of you. The only minus point which I hated the movie in the initial stage due to the slaughtering scene. Since I saw this movie I could not erase those images from my mind. It was very cruel, so it is not suitable for kids and adults who love animals. But the rest of the movie is indubitable. Like the French movie 'Welcome' about a boy who want to cross the English channel, this movie briefs longest journey within 90 minutes with a fine pace. This is a good example movie about after effects of war where innocents only suffer more than between two fighters.

Event though his track record is rather uneven (the guy is pretty much a workaholic, making very often 2 movies a year),  I think Michael Winterbottom is quite a fascinating director and, in my opinion, He should get much more credit. Anyway, after his brilliant debut, ‘Butterfly Kiss’, this movie is easily his best feature and it deservedly won the Golben Bear at the 2003 Berlin film festival. Basically, the plot is rather simple, it follows a young boy (14-15 years old, I think) who goes from Pakistan to England, illegally. Even though you pretty much know from the start that this journey will be pretty hazardous, it was seriously dangerous, harrowing and just plain horrible to behold. Honestly, after seeing this movie, I'll bet you will have some doubts about the anti-immigration laws. Indeed, do they have any purpose, considering that if people live in despair, they will risk anything, even their life to find a better place to live with hope of a brighter future? Since then, Winterbottom has directed many interesting movies but none of them have been so good. To conclude, I thought it was a great flick, it is a difficult watch but I think it is definitely worth a look, especially if you are interested by this subject.