In This World (2002)

Decent film that needed to be made
Be warned; don't watch this film with a strong moral view regarding immigration legal or otherwise this is simply the story of what many go through in order to reach the west.

We hear every day (in Europe at least) of illegal immigrants 'flooding the country' but we know almost nothing about them. This film goes some way to answer that question. Many are simply economic migrants rather than fleeing persecution in their homeland and many are arriving on our shores for no other reason that financial.

We see in the film how they bribe their way across Pakistan to Iran, how they change their clothes to 'blend in' with the locals, taken from there to South East Turkey (the smugglers heartland of that country) where they stay with Kurdish smugglers, passed on to sweat shops in the big cities they work until being shipped off to Europe.

The actors are genuine not least because they are migrants from their homeland its an interesting insight into the people we see everyday. From those begging or street vending in the big cities to working in the back of restaurants or on building sites.

Recommended film.

Okay.
I feel that the words "gripping documentary film" is inacurate for two reasons. I would not quite call it a documentary, as it is all reinactment, and, secondly, I think "gripping" is a stretch. I always welcome a chance to be reminded of the realities of life for those in less priveledged societies, but I felt that was really the most that this movie offered.

Unusual combination
Terrific film, realistic and informative, and dramatic without being overly dramatic. Shot like a documentary, and usually with the slower pace of a documentary, too. It shows you how difficult the journey really is, it shows you a little of what the cultures are like, compared with each other, it shows you what the land looks like. It's also a great variation on the road picture.