Recounted mostly through animation to protect his identity, Amin looks back over his past as a child refugee from Afghanistan as he grapples with a secret he’s kept hidden for 20 years. A thrilling documentary made with a blend of animation and archive footage tells an immensely powerful tale of a gay Afghan survivor and his need to confront his past in order to truly have a future. Amin arrived as an unaccompanied minor in Denmark from Afghanistan. Today, at 36, he is a successful academic and is getting married to his long-time boyfriend. A secret he has been hiding for over 20 years threatens to ruin the life he has built for himself. For the first time he is sharing his story with his close friend. FLEE weaves together a stunning tapestry of images and memories to tell the deeply affecting and original story of a young man grappling with his traumatic past in order to find his true self and the meaning of home.
- Released: 2021-06-17
- Runtime: 90 minutes
- Genre: Animation, Documentaries
- Stars: Rashid Aitouganov, Daniel Karimyar, Fardin Mijdzadeh, Milad Eskandari, Belal Faiz, Elaha Faiz, Zahra Mehrwarz, Sadia Faiz, Georg Jagunov, Navid Nazir, Hafiz Højmark, Denis Rivin, Vadim Nedaskovskij, Viktor Melnikov, Mikhail Belinson, Ditte Graa Wulff, Bo Asdal Andersen, The Dungeon Master, Behrouz Bigdeli, Christian Torp Carlsen, Gustaf Georg Lindström, Tormod Ringnes, Susanna Azevedo, Mauricio González-Aranda, Shabbir Showne, Amin Nawabi, Rashid Aitouganov, Jean-Pierre Pernaut
- Director: Jonas Poher Rasmussen
Comments
- jboothmillard - 10 October 2022
Flee
Mark Kermode gave this Danish film positive feedback on The Film Review on BBC News, I found out it gained praise at the Sundance Film Festival, and became a contender during Awards Season, I was certainly up for watching it. Basically, film director Jonas Poher Rasmussen has known Amin Nawabi since they were teenagers. Jonas is making a documentary about Amin's life, including his escape from Afghanistan to Denmark as a refugee. Amin has not shared the full details of his story with anyone, including his boyfriend Kasper, who he plans to marry. Amin is being interviewed about his traumatic past, which affects his ability to settle down, and he is considering a position in the United States as a postdoctoral researcher at Princeton University, away from Kasper. Amin begins his story, starting during his childhood in Kabul with his mother Tahera, sisters Fahima and Sabia, and his older brother Saif. Amin's father is in prison for a perceived threat following the outbreak of the Soviet-Afghan War. The police are drafting young men to fight, forcing Saif to flee regularly. After the Soviet Union withdraws from Afghanistan, the family flees Kabul due to the impending invasion by mujahideen forces. They fly to Russia, where they meet Amin's oldest brother Abbas, who fled Afghanistan years ago, and currently lives in Sweden. Abbas arranges for human traffickers to smuggle the family to Sweden. They wait to leave Russia but are in the country illegally and are forced to stay indoors. Amin's sisters are the first to be smuggled, being placed with dozens of other refugees on a freight container on a cargo ship. The two survive but are traumatised due to the difficulty of the journey. In the present, Jonas is surprised to learn that Amin's siblings are alive and living in Sweden, as he thought he had no living family. Amin kept this secret out of fear of being sent back from Denmark to Afghanistan if it is revealed he was not an orphaned refugee. Amin and Kasper have a viewing for a house they may purchase after they married. Kasper expresses concern that Amin cannot stay in one place for an extended period. In the past, Amin, Saif, and Tahera flee Russia by truck with a group of fellow refugees. They board a boat that heading to Sweden across the Baltic Sea. There is bad weather during the trip, causing the boat engine to die. After several days adrift, they are discovered by a Norwegian cruise ship. Amin and his family are held captive in Estonia for six months before being deported back to Russia. In the present, Amin decides to the job at Princeton, causing an argument between him and Kasper; he leaves and stays at Jonas's home. In the past, Tahera falls sick after their return to Russia. Saif takes responsibility for the family, using more expensive but more reliable smugglers. Amin is sent out of Russia first and told he must say he is an orphan to avoid being deported back to Afghanistan. Amin reaches Ukraine but is sent on a flight to Copenhagen rather than Sweden. Once there, he turns himself over to the authorities as a refugee, and contacting Abbas, he is instructed to continue to lie about his family members being killed. Several years later, Amin visits Abbas and his sisters in Stockholm. Amin admits to them that he is gay, and Abbas takes him to a gay club, telling him that the family always knew about his sexuality. In the present, Jonas visits Amin in New York City, where he feels ready to settle down, having constantly been on guard throughout his life. He returns to Denmark, where he reunites with Kasper. Four months later, Amin and Kasper are married and have bought a house together. An epilogue reveals that Amin's brother and mother eventually escaped Russia and that the fate of their father is still unknown. It is a moving memoir of self-discovery, the animation style is simplistic but effective to bring to life what would be difficult to watch in live action, there are moments of real archive of the events spoken about, I will admit having to read subtitles at the same time made it difficult to keep with everything, but it is a surprisingly different and interesting animated documentary. It was nominated the Oscars for Best Documentary Feature, Best Animated Feature Film, and Best International Feature Film, it was nominated the BAFTAs for Best Documentary, and Best Animated Feature Film, and it was nominated the Golden Globe for Best Motion Picture - Animated. Good! - lasttimeisaw - 15 June 2022
Cinema Omnivore - Flee (2021) 7.7/10
"Juxtaposed with WALTZ WITH BASHIR, FLEE is tonally more life-affirming, stylistically more simplified and chromatically more pastel, the animation lends itself a more unadorned, hand-written quality but is no less menacing when life is in jeopardy, somber shade pervades with an impressionistic sensibility. Archive footage is also intermittently interspersed to expose the harsh "reality" the animation emulates to express. By and large, Rasmussen keeps a documentarian's oath and allows Amin's own words to carry truth and weight onto a viewer's comprehension, FLEE is a rational probe into displacement and rootlessness, Amin's story is a small wonder to which the film does absolute justice."
read my full review on my blog: Cinema Omnivore, thanks.
