Every westerner ought to watch this movie. It is an extremely well done and very troubling movie that shows a part of the world that we are intimately involved in, but know very little about. Had I not known that the movie was based on a true story, I would have found it to be an unbelievable story. Our Middle Eastern policy is not working and this movie shows what happens on a personal,individual level as a result. At the same time it shows the human spirit and the desire that every person has to have a better life. What Jamal goes through to find his better life is truly amazing and probably not over yet. The movie works on a number of different levels.

In February 2002 in the Shamshatoo Refugee Camp in the North West Frontier Province in Pakistan, there are 53,000 refugees living in sub- human conditions since 1979 with the Soviet Union invasion and 2001 with the USA bombing and invasion of Afghanistan. The family of the Afghan Enayat and his cousin Jamal decides to send them illegally to London to have a better life. They hire coyotes to smuggle the cousins through Iran and Turkey to Italy and finally London hidden inside trucks and containers. However, the long journey locked in a container with other families separates the cousins and on 09 August 2002, Jamal has his asylum application refused in London."In This World" is a bleak docu-drama from the great British director Michael Winterbottom. The realistic story of the long and dangerous journey of the cousins Jamal and Enayat from Pakistan to London and to the Other World is simply amazing, with two amateurish actors in the lead roles living the reality of their people. Michael Winterbottom also exposes the sub-human conditions of the refugees after the destruction of their country by the Soviets first and North-Americans later. The claustrophobic scene of the refugees locked inside the small container is so anguishing that made me nervous in my couch at home, Rambo III" is "dedicated to the brave people of Afghanistan", in accordance with the final quote of Sylvester Stallone; but the homage of Michael Winterbottom is much more scathing and sharp. My vote is eight.Title (Brazil): "Neste Mundo" ("In This World")

This is a fascinating docudrama. The human smuggling drama unfolds steadily with a few good plot twists, as the 2 main characters trek across two continents (mostly by land) toward their destination (London).Streamlined film-making on location, combined with the use of very talented untrained actors, makes the "movie" seem more like a well-done, dramatic documentary. The surround sound also heightens the "realism" of the journey and is excellent.If you want to increase your enjoyment of the film, I strongly recommend that you take an extra hour or so to watch the behind-the-scenes featurette, director's commentary, and trailers. Although neither of the main characters is a professional "actor", by watching these special features the viewers discover that the young man who played the part of Jamal (real name of Jamal Udin Torabi) has been trying to gain status in the UK as a legal alien. That "revelation" further heightens the emotional impact and socio-political importance of this excellent film.Get it and enjoy watching it.

Michael Winterbottom, I thought, was a director worth watching (I had seen his film "Jude") but I was sorely disappointed with this film that was bestowed with a Golden Bear at the Berlin Film festival--a festival that often picks up fine cinema for its honors. I saw "In this world" at the on-going Dubai international film festival expecting to see top-notch cinema. Instead of great cinema, I saw a film that flounders in its effort to capture reality. Winterbottom and cinematographer Marcel Zyskind capture young faces and their action creditably (the young sibling who follows his brother as he leaves the refugee camp) at times and then slip up to the most shoddy camera-work soon after (local Pakistanis staring at the camera, shadows of vehicles carrying camera equipment on road sequences). The film attempts to capture fiction in a documentary style. The effort is commendable but the outcome is at best an average effort at highlighting the problem of refugees. The film begins with statements on the ration provided to refugees. A great beginning with shots of a real refugee camp. Then I was appalled to see shots of women dancers being showered with currency notes and a gruesome sacrifice/killing of an ox--sequences that add no value to the rest of the film. What is the film trying to state? Refugees are in a bad shape and they need to escape. Is Winterbottom suggesting that those who succeed are heroes and those who do not are tragic figures? Is he trying to make a statement on cultural values across borders?I feel Winterbottom could have served better purpose if he had retained the elements of documentary and discussed the problems of refugees than dramatize the journey itself. If he wanted to dramatize the journey--what are the shots of the dancing women doing here?Berlin has made a wrong choice--not that Winterbottom lacks in talent. But this is mixed-up cinema