Eclectic English film-maker Michael Winterbottom has produced his finest work to date with 'In this World', a pseudo-documentary account of the attempted journey of two Afghani refugees to London. This film's outstanding achievement is the sense it conveys that despite the ubiquity of television, mobile phones and the English language, this is still a big, poor and very beautiful world. I can't praise the cinematography highly enough - almost every scene is stunningly composed, especially the nighttime crossing of the mountains (shot without the use of additional lighting), yet none feels contrived. Characterisation is minimal, but the viewer feels emotionally bound to the journey. As a rich westerner, I am used to hopping on a plane and flying wherever I wish, but Winterbottom nonetheless succeeds in making me appreciate the culture shock encountered for his protagonists in travelling merely from one side of Pakistan to another. Their journey, of course, is no sort of holiday.
Winterbottom steers clear of direct politics, but we see (along with great suffering) numerous examples of the small ways in which human beings can be nice to one another - the contrast with the xenophobic hatred of the Daily Mail is unspoken but clear. Who knows if the real-life Jamals of this world find happiness? But the message for us is that we forget our shared humanity at our peril.
Winterbottom steers clear of direct politics, but we see (along with great suffering) numerous examples of the small ways in which human beings can be nice to one another - the contrast with the xenophobic hatred of the Daily Mail is unspoken but clear. Who knows if the real-life Jamals of this world find happiness? But the message for us is that we forget our shared humanity at our peril.