``In This World'' A fiction that erodes reality. A documentary style that goes beyond reality

"In This World" synopsis

Peshawar, Pakistan. Jamal, a 15-year-old orphan, grew up in a refugee camp and worked in a factory for low wages. Another of Jamal's cousins, Enayat, helps out at the family electronics store. One day, the two will leave for London. Enayat's father, concerned about his son's future, paid a large sum of money to a smuggler to send Enayat to London, where he had relatives. Jamal also speaks English, so he decides to accompany them. Finally, with their new future and hope in their hearts, they set out on a journey 6,400 kilometers away to a place of exile that brings them close to death...

Index

• The revolution in mobility brought about by digital photography in the early 2000s
• Documentary-like fiction that erodes reality
• Was the original title "Silk Road"?

The revolution in mobility brought about by digital photography in the early 2000s

``In This World'', released in 2002 by British director Michael Winterbottom, is about Jamal, a boy from a refugee camp in Pakistan, and his young cousin Enayatullah, who aim for London in order to immigrate to England (illegally). It's a road movie about traveling 6,400km. It won the Golden Bear, the highest award at the Berlin International Film Festival, and was probably the smallest film in Golden Bear history. Winterbottom actually went to a refugee camp to find the two lead actors and filmed them on miniature digital video as they followed the route depicted in the film. I hear that the cast that played the roles that the two meet on their travels were sourced locally, and the crew consisted of five or six people, including the director.

It's like a Paths of Glory location for a variety show. Movies like Tangerine (2015) have been released in recent years that were shot entirely on iPhones, but at the time, the guerrilla approach of an established director like Winterbottom was met with surprise. The sense of realism was prioritized over the quality of the pictures, and although it was difficult to tell what was happening in some situations, it still brilliantly captured the reality of the refugees' harsh journey.

Coincidentally, in the same year, Steven Soderbergh released ``Full Frontal,'' an experimental film shot entirely on digital camera and improvised. It was inevitable that such light-footed directors would see the potential in the high degree of mobility offered by the new technology of digital photography. Winterbottom has applied a documentary approach to various genres since In This World, and Soderbergh has recently taken on the challenge of making a film shot entirely with an iPhone. There is no wobbling in the stance.

Documentary-like fiction that erodes reality