In This World

For other uses, seeIn This World (disambiguation).

In This World
Directed by	Michael Winterbottom
Written by	Tony Grisoni
Produced by	Andrew Eaton Anita Overland
Starring	Jamal Udin Torabi Enayatullah Nabil Elouahabi
Narrated by	Paul Popplewell
Music by	Dario Marianelli
Production company	BBC Films
Distributed by	BBC
Release dates	17 November 2002(2002-11-17)(London) 28 March 2003(2003-03-28)(United Kingdom)
Running time	88 minutes
Country	United Kingdom
Languages	Dari Pashto Italian English
Budget	UK£950,000

In This Worldis a 2002 Britishdocudramadirected byMichael Winterbottom.The film follows two youngAfghan refugees,Jamal Udin Torabi and Enayatullah, as they leave arefugee campinPakistanfor a better life inLondon.Since their journey is illegal, it is fraught with danger, and they must use back-channels, bribes, and smugglers to achieve their goal.

The film won theGolden Bearprize at the 2003Berlin International Film Festivaland BAFTA Award for Best Film Not in the English Language at the57th British Academy Film Awardsthe film was nominated forAlexander Korda Award for Best British Filmbut lost toTouching the Void(directed byKevin Macdonald).

Plot

Jamal and Enayatullah areAfghanrefugees in a camp inPeshawar,Pakistan.They travel toQuetta,and thence toTaftanon theIranianborder. They paypeople smugglersto assist them over the border; on their first attempt they are stopped by Iranian police and returned to Pakistan, but their second attempt is successful. They travel toTehranand then toMaku,in theKurdish part of Iran,from where they cross a mountain range on foot toTurkey.InIstanbulthey meet a group of other migrants, and they are taken toItalyinside a shipping container. The container is not ventilated, and most of the refugees, including Enayatullah, are suffocated to death. Jamal survives and lives in Italy for a time. He then steals a woman's purse and buys a rail ticket toParis.From there, he goes to theSangatteasylum seekerscamp and with a new friend, Yusef, he crosses theEnglish Channelby stowing away on a lorry. Finally, he arrives in London, where he calls his uncle to say he has arrived but that Enyatullah is "not in this world". The film ends with images of the Peshawar refugees.

Production and style

The film is shot in adocumentarystyle but it is in fact a drama performed by non-professional actors and with improvised dialogue. The actors are mostly playing fictionalised versions of themselves; for example, Jamal is a real Afghan refugee and the Iranian policeman who deports the two refugees back to Pakistan is played by a real policeman who is re-enacting his normal work for the camera. Enayatullah was a market trader whom the filmmakers cast because they thought him "a nice guy". The production team lied to authorities in several countries in order to secure filming rights, having met government resistance inIranandPakistan.Most of the film was shot on location, but the scenes inside the Sangatte camp were actually filmed in England, as the film crew received hostility from the French inhabitants of the nearby village.

Distribution

The film was released in the UK in March 2003 by theBBCafter festival screenings in 2002. It was released in theUnited Statesin a limited number of cities in September 2003 byLions Gateas part of the short-livedSundance Film Seriespartnership experiment withLoews Cineplex Entertainment.The film did not make much money, but was highly regarded by the critics that were able to see it. The film holds an 89% onRotten Tomatoes.

Aftermath

In a case of life imitating art, after returning to Pakistan, Jamal Udin Torabi made the journey to London in reality and applied forasylum.He lived with a family inSouth East London,although he was only granted leave to remain in the UK until his eighteenth birthday. Enayatullah used the money he earned on the film to buy a truck, and now runs an import-export business betweenKabulandPeshawar.

External links

• In This WorldatBBC Films
• In This WorldatIMDb