Most undeservingly overhyped movie of all time??

Far from Perfect, Far from Terrible

Great movie! If you want to be entertained and have a few good laughs, see this movie. The music is also very good,

Through painfully honest and emotional moments, the movie becomes irresistibly relatable

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")

Presented as if it were a documentary, which would lead one to believe that the cinematographer (and possibly the director), stood idly by while some of the characters died of suffocation in transit aboard a sealed trailer, "In This World" would be more effective if it acknowledged openly that this was a work of fiction based on the realities faced by Afghan refugees trying to make their way from camps in Pakistan to the West -- in this case to London. That it is fiction becomes obvious after a while since no cinematographer or director could have been present if the incidents shown on screen were real. But I resented the deception and, thereafter, disbelieved the story although it was probably true in spirit even while it was clearly not true. Sometimes truth is stranger than fiction; often fiction is more true than faked reality. As a fictional work, I would have rated "In This World" at 7.5. As a phony documentary, it is scarcely worth a 4.

Michael Winterbottom's docudrama gives us a glimpse at what goes on behind the scenes when people try to emigrate to better their lives. He worked with non professional actors. It is a wonder he was able to capture so candidly the world in which the would be immigrants live and what motivates them to leave a land where no opportunities exist.The father of Enayat was naive in thinking that because his son wanted to go to London, it was going to be an easy proposition. Little did he know what Enayat and Jamal must go through before they arrive at the final destination. In a way, one wonders whatever Enayat must have thought he would encounter in London, not knowing the language, or not being as swift as Jamal turns out to be. In a way one must have to admire such determination in someone as young as these two Afghan friends. They live in a primitive society but it is obvious that they realize there is a big world out there where one can make a living with better conditions.The film becomes a road movie about all the difficulties Jamal and Enayat encounter along the way. There is also a tragedy that we were not prepared to witness, but in a lot of ways, it's a tremendous positive film, one that presents us a young man of such resolution that shows us he will be a survivor, no matter what.

In a camp in Peshawar, the father of Jamal and Enayatullah pays for his sons to leave the country and travel to London to start a new life. Unable to afford air travel, they pay people smugglers to arrange a land journey across Iran, Turkey etc. However neither Jamal nor Enayatullah are prepared for the extra costs and the hardships they must endure on their way.When I heard about this film, I thought it was a proper documentary and I was a little disappointed to find out that, although the `cast' are real people, that this is actually a staged drama to reflect a true story. The actual plot here is a very worthy and interesting subject that we in the UK see all too often simplified as `they're after our jobs', or to quote Minnie Bannister `we'll all be murdered in our beds'. With the level of hysteria around refugees at the minute, this film is going to be worth seeing despite it's flaws, it is important that the voiceless have a voice.On this issue I am not liberal - I believe that the UK should open their doors for people who's countries pose a danger to themselves either political or humanitarian. However I believe they should return there once the danger has been removed (if it ever is). Anyway, despite this the film still touched me because it is a human story at the end of the day - regardless of my political beliefs Jamal and Enayatullah are people and it is moving to see the sort of thing they (and thousands like them) go through.Of course this whole documentary/drama thing was a problem for it and it spoilt the delivery somewhat. If this was a proper documentary I would be amazed. However as a `proper' (ie staged) film it is less impressive. Since this film had a writer, why was a better script not written - what we have hear is very baggy, not really natural and surprisingly unengaging. I assumed that it was trying to make itself into as much of a documentary as possible, this is the only reason I can think of for the structure being so, well, lacking in structure. Though mind you, Grisoni also has the pointless `hide' on his cv, so he's a mixed one.The direction is as good as one would expect from a filmmaker who had access to a lot more in the way of resources than many other trying to make this film for real would have. He does get good shots but he isn't really able to make the characters into real people - he seems content just to have them represent the Afghan people as a whole. Despite that Jamal and Enayatullah both come out of it well, good humoured and likeable - not the image we are given by the tabloids of benefit cheats who are coming to claim with one hand and rob with the other.Overall this is a worthy story that is told reasonably well. However the blurring between drama and documentary is a problem as it weakens the impact of the story. The fact that the script appears to be deliberately written to seem like a documentary means it lacks urgency, tension and real involvement. However the fact that it is a drama posing as a documentary means that the vast majority of the scenes feel staged and fake (which of course they are in the context of this film). It is worth seeing simply because this is the side of the story that we don't get shown often enough by our media.