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Show The Salt Lake Tribune Friday, October 31, 2003 THE MIX takes a long walk in refugees’ shoes: in This World By SEAN P. MEANS TheSalt Lake Tribune te te ke It is a given that war kills people. What is less discussed is how war displaces people people who must either rebuild from the rubble or ven ture far from the battle to re-establish their lives The seldom-seen plight of war refugees is brought into clear, harrowing focus in the quasifactual drama“In This World,” a moviethat should be required viewing for any world leader who thinks warsare clean-cut affairs British director Michael Winterbottom (“24 Hour Party People”) and writer Tony Grisoni took the true stories of Afghan refugees and condensed them into the journey of two young men. They found non-professional actors, put themin thereal situations, had them improvise their dialogue and shot on handheld digital cameras -— often without the knowledge of the other people seen onscreen. Jamal Udin Torabi, playing himself, is a 16year-old orphan living in a refugee campin Paki stan along with 53,000 others. Some have been there since 1979, when the Soviets invaded Af ghanistan, while others fled the Taliban and more left their countryin 2001 when the U.S. bombed the Taliban out of existence. Jamal speaksa little English, so when his uncle Wakeel wants to send his son Enayatullah (also playing himself) to London, Jamal goes along as a Jamal Udin Torabi, left, and Enayatullah face an arduous journey from Pakistan to London in “In This World.” SHORT TAKES translator. Together, Jamal and Enayat travel A true-to-life depictior Rated R for brief st Farsi with subtitles; 88 minute Opening today at the Tower heat through Pakistan, Iran and Turkey, dealing witht™ at militaty human smugglers, suspicious ¢ ind the pos checkpoints, shady currency dea sibility of freezing to death in the mou bottont Using the digital camera “t%¢ re. achieves an amazing intimacy and a harrowing authenticity. These t including a devastating scene in whichr are sealed into a dark cargo container for a be from Istanbul to Trieste may not be really pening, but theyfeel as if they do. Orat least cot I wouldn't want to argue politics with Wint@ bottom his comparison of the 1979 Soviet inv’ sion of Afghanistan with the 2001 U.S. bombing 7 campaign is too cut-and-dried but his realisti depiction of Jamal’s journey mostly transcenda4 politics. Jamal isn’t worried about internatio1 Aha politics; he is just trying to survive, sometimes @o ing things that make him not so sympathetic to#™ casual viewer. But watching him take his flight to. freedom makes “In This World” an important dée~" ument of human resiliency : subtitles; 105 minutes; opening today at the Madstone Trolley Square Theaters Moviereviews in brief By SEAN P. MEANS The Salt Lake Tribune Autumn Spring kkk Rated PG-13 for language; in Czech with subtitles; 105 minutes; opening today at the Broadway Centre Cinemas. Fanda (Vlastimil Brodsky) maybe oid but he refuses to growup. Instead, he andhis old theater colleague Eda (Stanislav Zindulka) spice uptheir life pulling small scams on Prague’s real-estate brokersandothers, to the consternationof Fanda’s wife Emilie (Stella Zazvorkova) and son Jara (Ondrej Vetchy). Director Vladimir Michalek and writer Jiri Hubac create a small and nicely observed gem, a moviethat chooses not to mournthe elderly prematurely but rather celebrate the possibilities available to anyone with cunning, a wrinkledfaceand alot of free time. Boliywood/Hollywood * Rated PG-13 for sensuality/partial nudity, some crude language and drug references; in English, and in Hindi and Spanish with Indian-born Canadian director Deepa Mehta labors mightily to graft the conventions of India’s “Bollywood” filr flashy dance numbers, a chaste love story and broad comic relief — to a Hollywood romantic comedy; specifically, a “Pretty Woman” rip-off about a businessman (Rahul Khanna) whohiresan escort (Lisa Ray) to play his fiancée. But Mehta, with her winking commentary (such astitle cards identifying the “romantic couple song” and other cues) and poorly drawn characters, acts like she’s too good for her material. What starts as an examination of the commoncliches of Hollywood and Bollywood ends up being condescendingto both. Meg Ryan left, and Jennifer Jason Leigh . In the Cut w'S2 Rated R for strong sexuality, including explicit dialogue, nudity, graphic crime scenes and language; 118 minutes; opening today at area in “In the theaters Cut,” Director Jane Campion, who found sexual tension in the genteel worlds of “The Piano” and “The Portrait of a Lady,” is lost at sea in this sexually charged crime drama. So is Meg Ryan, dour and deglamorized as an English teacher who hops into bed with a homicide detective (Mark Ruffalo) investigating a serial killer even though she directed by Jane Campion suspects he is the killer. This plays like a below average SharonStoneerotic thriller, with Campion’s arty pretensions and fuzzy visuals muddying the mix. 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