UK, 2002
Director: Michael Winterbottom
Cast: Jamal Udin Torabi
Score: ***

Fascination with people’s behavior has prompted Michael Winterbottom to create some of Britain’s finest films.  The Claim, 24-Hour Party People and Wonderland were character driven portraits of people and their interactions with the outside world.  For his latest effort, Winterbottom tracks the arduous journey of an Afghan boy, Jamal (Jamal Udin Torabi) as he makes his way from his homeland in Asia to his destination, London.

This is not as easy film to watch.  Though Winterbottom does not over-dramatize any situation, most are harrowing enough standing on their own.  The one of the silent baby brought out of a crate after days of darkness makes up one of the film’s most disturbing scenes.  The viewer is also forced to take up judgment when Jamal resorts to purse snatching after fruitlessly trying to make an honest living by selling fortune bracelets (2 for 1 euro).  As the scenes switch from Pakistan, Iran, Turkey and then to the cities of Europe, the travelogue continues to get uglier.

Though what is offered on screen is nothing that the viewer has not heard nor read about before, watching the trip first hand on film is still quite the experience.  Winterbottom and writer Tony Grisoni have done their homework well and the footage shows.  The film has a newsreel feel to it (cinematographer Marcel Zyskind shot the film on a small digital video camera using available natural light) giving the re-creation of the journey some clout.

In This World is minor Winterbottom but nevertheless, one that comes from the heart.  The last scene tells it all as he freely allows his curious Afghan subjects, young and old alike, free reign to peer, look and smile at his camera as he relaxes after the boy’s story has been told.  Their various astonished expressions remind one of the classic Punch ‘n’ Judy scene with the children’s faces in Francois Truffaut’s 400 Blows. In This World deservedly won the Golden Bear at the 2003 Berlin International Film Festival.

Review by Gilbert Seah.