IN THIS WORLD
Directed by: Michael Winterbottom.
Produced by: Andrew Eaton & Anita Overland.
Written by: Tony Grisoni.
Director of Photography: Marcel Zyskind.
Edited by: Peter Christelis.
Music by: Dario Marianelli.
Released by: Sundance Channel Pictures.
Country of Origin: UK. 88 min. Rated: R.
With: Jamal Udin Torabi & Enayatullah.
DVD Features: Behind-the-scenes footage with commentary by Winterbottom & Grisoni. Director's introduction from the Sundance Film Series. Production notes and biographies. Trailer. Highlights from the 2003 Sundance Film Series.

Winterbottom's directorial effort comes off as a strikingly noble experiment, with mixed results. The film, which takes place in February 2002, recreates in painstaking detail the actual plight of Afghani refugees attempting to escape persecution and danger from such sources as the Taliban and the 2001 U.S.-led bombing campaign, in order to fulfill their dreams of making better lives for themselves. The story, while fictional, is steeped in a tone of ethnographic documentary-like realism. It unfolds with Jamal (Torabi), an orphaned 16-year-old boy living in the Shamshatoo refugee camp in Pakistan. He volunteers to help out his non-English-speaking cousin, Enayat (Enayatullah), by being his interpreter on what could be a treacherous journey to London - which Jamal seizes as an opportunity to flee his own circumstances. Many elements in the movie make a strong impact, such as the use of digital video, as well as scenes of children gathering excitedly and looking into the lens in wonder. Jamal is a particularly ingratiating protagonist; one is charmed by his seemingly off-the-cuff and imaginative joking anecdotes. However, the simple and direct plot (consisting solely of how the boys make their way to London) is a bit unfocused dramatically. The driving force of the indignities and hardships that the pair must endure on their trip - and which emerges as the impetus for the film - loses much steam by the end (with the exception of a trip on a cargo container and Jamal's arrival in Italy ). Finally, the voice-over narration in the opening sequences of the film - which includes the fact that there are a million refugees in Asia, with 53,000 of them in the Shamshatoo camp - is informative, but unnecessary. The squalor and poverty that these people live in come through in the movie's images. More effort should have been invested in rendering their situation in effective cinematic terms rather than in a form that - while true to the film's quest for verisimilitude - comes close to preaching.

DVD Extras: The behind-the-scenes footage with commentary from Winterbottom and Grisoni is, for film aficionados, the most illuminating of the special features, insofar as shedding light on the manner in which they went about making it and demonstrating Torabi's adorability in real life. From the commentary, one learns that much of the dialogue was improvised, though the overall story was scripted. Also, the actors used their own experiences - for instance, Torabi's becoming an orphan - as those of their characters. Indeed, the fiction of this film based on realistic situations did in itself become fact, with Torabi's refugee status while seeking asylum in Britain winding up mirroring his character's. Interestingly, the filmmakers state that it was easy to shoot the film in its real-life border locations, since the crew and equipment needed was so small and sparse. The rest of the features are pretty perfunctory. Reymond Levy
March 23, 2004