The Eleven Films About Refugees You Need To See
They're less depressing than the real thing.
In This World (2002)
This extraordinary film from the prolific Michael Winterbottom (The Trip, 24 Hour Party People) follows the journey of two Afghan asylum seekers. Young Jamal (Jamal Udin Torabi, a real refugee more or less playing himself) and his older cousin Enayat (Enayatallah) attempt a treacherous overland odyssey from a Pakistani refugee camp to the promise of a better life in the UK in the hands of a network of people smugglers.
Shot in a point-blank doco style, with the crew and the actors travelling together on a dangerously authentic migrant route through the region, the film gets into the truth of the refugee experience like few other fiction films. The fear and misery, the hope, the endless waiting and the small moments of happiness are captured with amazing vividness.