In This World
One of Britain’s most prolific filmmakers, having directed sixteen films in the past thirteen years, ICA Films is proud to present Michael Winterbottom’s (24 Hour Party People, A Mighty Heart) moving, powerful, visually stunning and hard hitting response to the asylum debate; In This World.
An epic docu-drama that takes a pointedly different look at the immigration issue, In This World follows a journey that is illegal, fraught with danger and full of back-channel bribes, human smuggling and examples of the lengths people will go to in an effort to reach freedom.
This harrowing, challenging and heartbreaking film will be released on DVD courtesy of ICA Films on 21 September 2009.
Jamal and Enayatullah are Afghan refugees in a camp in Peshawar, Pakistan. Intent on fleeing their homeland and reaching the idealised freedom of Britain, they travel to Quetta and then to Taftan on the Iranian border, and despite paying people smugglers to assist them over the border they are stopped by Iranian police and returned to Pakistan.
Their second attempt is successful, seeing them travel to Tehran and then to Maku, where they then cross a mountain range on foot into Turkey.
From there they cross Europe with a group of other refugees, travelling in shipping containers and the back of lorries, dangerous modes of transportation that result in heartbreaking tragedy.
In This World is a profoundly moving and powerful film, made by one of Britain’s most respected directors, using professional actors playing fictionalised versions of themselves in order to tell a story similar to the nearly one million refugees who make similar trips every year.
Motivated by the tragic deaths of 58 Chinese immigrants in a shipping container in Dover, Winterbottom’s story gives a name, a face and a humanity to the faceless thousands who risk all they have in search of a better life.
In This World is released 21st September.
Tagged in Michael Winterbottom