Unusually successful alternating between serious & silly projects, here Michael Winterbottom tackles a particularly tough subject using documentary technique to chart a fictional, if likely, illegal journey of a couple of Afghan teens, refugees stuck among thousands in a Pakistan holding camp, fighting impossible odds to hopefully reach London. Cousins Jamal and the slightly older Enayatullah are the very essence of resilience as they blindly shuttle thru country after country (Iran, Turkey, Italy, France, England) without documents and a bare smattering of local language skills, depending on the kindness of helpful paid (or bribed) strangers. With just enough cash reserves from relatives back at the camp to get by, they go from one arranged meeting to the next, hidden behind produce or livestock in the back of trucks as they sneak past borders, moving from dirt-poor villages to major cities via commercial bus, even on foot. Winterbottom gets amazing portraits from his non-pro cast of helpers and asylum seekers from different countries. Discovering even the luckless can run out of luck. Playing his moves very close to the vest, Winterbottom often leaves us as much in the dark as the boys are. Who is this stranger guiding us to the next point? Jumping ahead of himself before we get our bearings. The idea to make us sympathetic participants in the journey. But there’s a cost in losing informed involvement, the tactic reducing the horror of tragedy when it inevitably arrives. Even so, moving and unsentimental; avoiding easy answers to intransigent problems.
DOUBLE-BILL/LINK: A similar tale from a century back in Elia Kazan’s AMERICA AMERICA/’63. https://maksquibs.blogspot.com/2015/12/america-america-1963.html
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