7. In This World
In This World is a docu-drama by Michael Winterbottom. It came after the horrific incidents of 2000 when a container was opened in Dover that carried the bodies of 58 Chinese immigrants. Winterbottom's film won the prestigious Golden Bear award at Berlin International Film Festival in 2003 but experienced less acclaim in Winterbottoms homeland. Interesting fact: much of the film is improvised and the producer, Anita Overland, would work advance on scouting locations so that Winterbottom and the cast could catch up and film their scenes.
Where are they going? Political figures from Reagan to Lenin have said that refugees vote with their feet, migrating out of their home countries as they hope to find a more beneficial situation elsewhere. In This World follows two Afghan refugees from a Shamshatoo camp in Pakistan that sits right on the Afghan border. Jamal and Enayatullah leave their camp in the hopes of a better life in the promised land of Kilburn, London. As they don't have access to any other modes of transport they put their lives into the hands of people smugglers. Their trip is illegal, dangerous and filled with complications as they travel along the smuggler's silk route towards Great Britain. An example of their imminent danger is when they pass the snowy mountains of Turkey where the border patrol shoots at random. Their modes of transport are varied from pick-ups to buses to airless coffin-like containers and on foot. They pass beautiful untamed landscapes, rocky mounds and Kurdish mountainsides straight through Iran, Turkey, Italy and France. Sometimes they spend days waiting for the next pick-up, hanging around in pool halls and cafes and just when you think they've made significant progress an official sends them another two steps back. However, this film is all about movement. When Jamal miraculously survives travelling in an airtight freight container he runs out into a warehouse. He doesn't know where he is or where he's going as long as it's forward.