https://thelip.robertsharp.co.uk/2003/06/01/fictional-reality/ Diversity and Multiculturalism Tue, 20 Dec 2005 06:18:07 +0000 hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=5.8 https://thelip.robertsharp.co.uk/2003/06/01/fictional-reality/#comment-20 Tue, 20 Dec 2005 06:18:07 +0000 http://www.thelip.sowood.co.uk/?p=111#comment-20 […] Neo-realist films, inspired by Roberto Rossellini, often used ‘real people’ as actors – something Michael Winterbottom does in In this World (2003), a depiction of human-trafficking notably absent from the OAL’s series. In this film, Michael blurs the boundaries between art and life, following two Afghan refugees on their journey to the UK, using raw, documentary-style footage. It is, perhaps, the nature of the subject matter (immigration) which makes this technique so unsettling: we are constantly forced to ask ourselves if the situation unfolding is real and, on a certain level, we must realise that it is. Michael plays with our reactions in this film, and it is the rigorously intellectual nature of this manipulation, especially when compared to the ‘purer’, emotional landscapes of films like Wonderland, Jude and The Claim, that marks this British director as one of the most important film stylists of the moment. […]

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