In this world - review

Title: In this world
Director: Michael Winterbottom
Cast: Jamal-Udin Torabi, Enayatullah
Released: 2003

I was shocked, I was shocked at the world that I thought I had gotten used to. I was reminded of the humanity that I couldn't be so distant from when I read the news. Then at the end I cried.
See this film.

The characters displayed are real, Jamal (pictured) is a young kid who tells quirky jokes that no one seems to understand but him. He's a human, and his cousin Enyat embark upon the journey that many people are forced to make in order to secure a decent way of life for their families 'back home'. This film really puts a lot into perspective if you live in England, or for that matter anywhere in Europe. You really understand the difficulties these people go through, the same people who are serving you kebabs on late nights. Michael Winterbottom does a great job in allowing us to connect with the characters, merely by allowing them to play themselves- there was no script as far as dialogue goes, they merely followed the general plot he had outlined in the way that felt most natural to them.

And so, after the shock of the story, and the realisation that this was all happening right now in the world- I left the film in confident mood. If only I could be that little bit more understanding with those people who I might sometimes feel tempted to be short tempered with (ie people who we often wrongly accuse of 'not making an effort to blend in') then that was, at the very least, one thing I could definitely do. On the slightly bigger picture there seem to be a number of ways in which we can adress this problem- my view being that the effects of war and suffering are probably still the main reason all of these people are leaving their own beloved countries to come to what is often a cold, grey Western Europe. As Marvin said "War is not the answer, for only love can conquer hate." Next time you see a anti-war demo, know something that perhaps a lot of those demonstrators themselves don't even know- that the effects of war last years, decades, and 99% of those effects are overwhelmingly, depressingly negative. The people of Afghanistan are feeling them now, and the people of Iraq will be feeling them for a long time to come.

"Only love can conquer hate". The reason I cried at the end as the young and resilient Jamal prayed in a London Mosque was because it dawned on me that after all that hardship, here he was, in this country- my country- and this brave young kid was working in a cafe, like anyone else. He's my brother, and you're supposed to love your brother.

Y.Misdaq aka Yoshi, 15 Feb-24 Mar 2004

-I was too moved after having seen it to write anything of significant depth. This was the most worthwhile review I came across.