Went to see “In this World” last night, a road movie of two Afghan refugees trying to get to London, it follows them from a refugee camp (around Peshawar) in Pakistan. I have an incredibly sensitive point for ‘immigration’ and societal representation of ‘refugees’ - so this film was going to be affective for me. The film had an Iranian quality to it (narrative driven by images and phrasing, not by dialogue), but the director is actually English (Michael Winterbottom - made ‘Welcome to Sarajevo’) - the actors seemed to play themselves (all non-professional actors), and the almost documentary like quality meant the characters became very believable. The two main protagonists were framed as ‘economic-refugees’ - labelled by Policy and popular opinion in the West as an ‘unjustified’ form of immigration[1]. That the film selects the characters as economic migrants is important, so we see the faces and hear the voices of the most reviled of the refugees[2], those trying to make a better future for themselves. Their journey is (naturally) extremely difficult, and the traffickers often have little regard to their safety. The film never moralises though, but allows the story to unfold in its own time.
Interestingly, the main actor (Jamal), after the film had been shot and he was back in Pakistan, actually smuggled himself back into the UK (unknown to the Director), and is now living as a refugee in London!!! There is a section where Jamal is in Trieste, selling trinkets (lighters, sunglasses etc.) on the streets - it reminds me so much of my time in Italy, with hundreds of people selling this stuff everywhere. The film is shot entirely using a digital video camera, so has a certain ‘dogma’ feel to it, but that gives it a close and intimate quality. The film was deeply moving to me…
[1] Whereas the real distinction between political or economic immigration is often deeply blurred
[2] Reviled by ignorant xenophobes of course - and sentiments amplified exponentially by the press in baseless and hateful flurries of articles.
Must have been a cool film. Peshawar is a pretty nice place.
Posted by Tora at April 2, 2003 09:25 PM