Director Michael Winterbottom (Welcome to Sarajevo, Wonderland) probes the middle ground of people caught up in places of political repression and economic confinement; people who are seduced to risk everything by the promise of a better life in a "free" country. This docudrama-style tale is the story of 16-year-old Afghan citizen Jamal and his perilous journey from a refugee camp in Peshawar to London. Perilous not because of land mines and bandits as we in the west have come to picture those regions of the world, about which we know so little, but because without legal documentation, these people are without a country, not whole, some for their entire lives. Jamal is an orphan, born in the refugee camp. He has known no other life. He works as a brick maker for wages equaling one dollar a day. A voice over in English provides some background statistics - the numbers, dates and places of the estimated 14.5 million refugees worldwide. The balance of the movie is in several languages and subtitled in English. This hurdle of languages and a refugee's ability to field them is a recurring theme and key to the success or failure of reaching the destination.

In February 2002, Jamal embarks on the journey as a companion to Enayat, whose uncle wishes to see his nephew safely in London. Enayat's uncle makes an agreement with a travel broker of sorts for a substantial sum of money to arrange passage along the way. Being well liked, entertaining, resourceful, and knowing some English, Jamal talks his way into a spot as traveling partner.

A composite in story and character of actual people, it has the feel of a documentary but the look and polish of a drama. Punctuated by drawings of a simple map that charts the path of Jamal and Enayat, Winterbottom uses a mix of uncluttered visual styles. A hike across the mountains at night is shot in grainy black and white. The vast desert landscapes at sunset or mountains in silhouette, all in wide screen panorama, contrast with the big, worldly cities of Tehran and Istanbul. Caught by the camera in the wind, the sun, the rain, and dark of night, the places are beautiful and awesome.

Jamal has an affable nature and an instinct for survival which serve him well but the obstacles are many, not least because refugees are not legitimate and must be at the mercy of strangers. He and Enayat are taken off a bus by police in Iran after making it across the border, returned back to the entry village and must begin again. They are given new clothes to blend in with the locals. The faces of anonymous observers along the way seem to be witnesses who wait to see what will unfold. There is heartbreaking tragedy before the journey ends in London in August 2002, some seven months later. Winterbottom's keen eye and sympathetic perspective is summed up in the words of Jamal when he reports back to Peshawar of one who is no longer in this world.