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 (2002)
  • Rating: (2,834 votes)
  • Tagline:The journey to freedom has no borders. »
  • Runtime:88 minutes
  • Director: Michael Winterbottom
  • Country:UK
  • Actors:
    Jamal
    Jamal Udin Torabi
    Enayat
    Enayatullah
    Travel Agent (Pakistan)
    Imran Paracha
    Enayat's Brother (Pakistan)
    Hiddayatullah
    Enayat's Father (Pakistan)
    Jamau
    Enayat's Uncle 1 (Pakistan)
    Wakeel Khan
    Enayat's Uncle 2 (Pakistan)
    Lal Zarin
    Money Changer (Pakistan)
    Ahsan Raza
    Jamal's Older Brother (Pakistan)
    Mirwais Torabi
    Groom (Pakistan)
    Abdul Ahmad
  • Genre:Drama
  • Producers:
    Chris Auty
    executive producer  
    Andrew Eaton
    producer  
    Behrooz Hashemian
    co-producer  
    Fiona Neilson
    associate producer  
    Anita Overland
    producer  
    David M. Thompson
    executive producer  
  • Plots: 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. Written by Claudio Carvalho, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
In This World
  • User's comment:Brilliant encapsulation of refugee journeys by Robert_Woodward

    In This World charts the journey of two Afghan refugee brothers who leave their camp in Peshawar, Pakistan to seek a new life in London. The epic voyage of Jemal and Emayat is an archetypal refugee journey from East to West; in a film lasting just 90 minutes, director Michael Winterbottom weaves together a taut and powerful narrative, encapsulating the encounters and journeys-within-journeys that characterise refugee lives. Relatives of the two brothers give all they can to send them on their way; 'agents' of migration variously help and hinder their journey; policemen fleece them at the border crossings. From Peshawar to Sangatte (where would-be migrants to Britain crowd the French coast), the coherent and transfixing narrative brings together the names and places associated with countless refugee journeys.

    On Jemal and Enayat's journey there are so many glimpses of the world around – some enlightening, others mysterious – that you could watch this film again and again and be fascinated by new details each time. The early stages of the journey reveal the stunning emptiness of Central Asian landscapes, with vast plains stretching out towards impossibly far-off mountains. The journey across Asia reveals some very different – and occasionally alarming – road usage, whilst the briefest of pauses in rural Iran captures a little of the traditions involved in welcoming and sending-off guests. Among the most striking asides in this film for me is the footage of a cow being slaughtered by the halal method; just a few eye-opening moments are afforded to this episode.

    The film is, for all these fascinating glimpses, tightly woven around the story of Jemal and Enayat. The portrayal of their difficulties and sufferings is devastatingly powerful; the jerky, panic-stricken footage at the Turkish border and the dark and claustrophobic nightmare of the shipping container remain long and vivid in the memory. Although Winterbottom rarely lets the pace of the film slacken – indeed, he hardly has the option in such a wide-ranging and ambitious undertaking – snatches of conversation, bickering and camaraderie develop the two brothers' characters: they feel like real people. Jemal's humorous stories are particularly important in this regard, and, for me, the parodying of creation myths in these tales also suggests a much-warranted poking of fun at Western audiences, who often take a condescending interest in 'quaint' traditions.

    Through the use of a voice-over in the early stages of the film and recurring resort to a map to help chart the brothers' journey, Winterbottom adds overtly documentary-style elements to his film. These elements seem to me to jar with the rest of the film; there is no real need to add them to an otherwise immersive and realistic picture. On the other hand, whilst the musical score by Dario Marianelli seems jarring to begin with, it soon becomes an essential part of the film: a theme to match an exhaustingly emotional experience as we watch the migrants on their journey.


  • Also known as: Neste Mundo (Brazil), Neste Mundo (Portugal - imdb display title), Cose di questo mondo (Italy), Ezen a világon (Hungary - imdb display title), In This World (Spain), Matka vapauteen (Finland), Na tym swiecie (Poland), Se afton ton kosmo (Greece - festival title), Sta synora tou kosmou (Greece - transliterated ISO-LATIN-1 title), The Silk Road (UK - working title),

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