Like a documentary we hear an opening voiceover explaining the refugee situation, and this tone carries through with the handheld DV cinematography, plus narration and graphics that show us where we are along the way. It feels like a fly-on-the-wall piece, and with the excellent cast of non-actors that's pretty much what it is! Fiercely intimate, grueling and involving, we travel the Silk Road with this duo, having their identity stripped from them so they blend in better, wondering about the danger at the next checkpoint, doubting whether they should trust each person they meet. Winterbottom brilliantly blends DV with wide-screen (fact with fiction?) to capture the terrain--desolate, beautiful, terrifying, bewildering. Dario Marinelli's locally infused music is as haunting and effective as a Badalamenti score. And as Jamal and Enayat build a camaraderie, we start to fear that they might not make it. Winterbottom makes his usual mistakes, assuming we know what he's talking about (Americans who have never heard of Sangatte won't see its relevance) and leaving gaps here and there. But the film has a riveting central narrative, the performances are compelling and, most of all, we need to hear more immigration stories like this to counter the government's and the media's incessant fear-mongering.