In This World

It is a docudrama by Michael Winterbottom. I primarily watched it for the inspiration for my other essay on THE SILENCE OF LORNA. This film turns out to be really impressive and powerful in the way it draws spectators intensely on the character's fate as their bodies move through the landscape.

This can be said to be a rather simple film about two Afghan refugees originally living at the camp at Peshawar, Pakistan decide to go to London through the trade with people smugglers. On the way, one of the guys died because of illness, and the younger boy made his way to London on his own, and found a job at their compatriot's restaurant. On the other hand, this film is extremely complicated, especially in terms of it's composition. Mostly filmed with the hand-held camera, the film delivers a sense of documentary while depicting the journey life of the two diaspor-to-be. In order to cross the border and prevent being caught by the patrols, they have to hide in various kinds of trucks, some of which are for shipping fruits, some for animals, some for other goods. People are hidden in those commodities, which are produced in those poorer countries or regions to be sold and communed in a relatively wealthier countries and regions. Behind the flow of goods and money, are the flow of population. This is the very truth of demography nowadays. Once they arrive at a new stop, they only have one contact number which they can rely on in order to move further, and they have to pay to move on. Thus, the human relationship is totally reduced to a fragile and economical one, without any guarantee. As well, in order to get away with custom investigation at the border, those fled refugees have to abandon their identity at all: they have to change the currency, change their cloth, take off their caps, which are deemed to be shit, and they also have to learn some simple language, even the English is not a safe strategy. However, there is one thing they cannot abandon: their religion. The film shows the older guy takes the advantage of a street platform, and pray to the east where their God resides.

Though a docudrama most likely without the staging and much depends on the improvisation, these authentic and natural mise-en-scene renders the film a heavy tone on the immigration issue facing the world and the core-periphery relation nowadays. (The moving landscape is another element needs to be addressed)

Perhaps, it could be one of my dissertation films.