YNOT at the Movies

Last night, I watched the critical acclaimed "In This World." It tells a story about two young Afghan refugees went through extraordinary journey from Pakistan to Iran, to Turkey, to Italy, to France, and finally to UK, all illegally, searching for a better life.

We have heard stories all the time about illegal immigrants from Mexico and from Asia to the US. But this film puts two real faces on the screen reflecting the millions of Afghan refugees who are normally forgotten.

After I started the film, I thought this is a documentary. But then I kept wondering how the cameras got there. Later I realized that this is a drama but shot with real people with a documentary style.

To me, somehow this so called doc drama undermines the credibility of the story. I find myself no place to stand. The more I think what an incredible true story this is, the drama element kicks in telling me that this is not a documentary. But when I started to watch the film as a drama, the film shows me that its camera is capturing what's really happening at that moment in the real life. I am lost.

After a while, I gave up. This film won the Golden Berlin Bear in 2003. Well, good. It doesn't work for me.

My rating: 5 out of 10.