Flee: Animated Documentary Puts a Human Face on the Faraway Plight of Refugees

By Karen Gordon

Rating: A

The animated documentary Flee, which is Denmark’s submission to the Oscar’s Best International Film race, is already starting to rack up nominations and awards, and show up on year end “Best” lists.

And for good reason. The film, which documents the true story of a boy who was forced to flee his home in Afghanistan, and the life he ended up living in adopted country, is surprisingly intimate. It is one of the most beautifully humanistic movies of the year.

An animated Amin Nawabi looks back on his family’s flight from Afghanistan in Flee.

That’s no doubt because of the relationship between filmmaker and subject.  Director Jonas Poher Rasmussen was 15 when he first met Amin Nawabi in Denmark.  The teens rode the bus to high school and developed a friendship that continued after school and into adulthood. They’ve been friends for more than 25 years.

Rasmussen didn’t ask his friend about his past until the two were out of high school. It was difficult for Amin to talk about what had happened to him. But ultimately, he began to realize there were secrets all through his life that were burdening him, and he was ready to talk.

Rasmussen has a background of radio documentaries. And over some time, he taped interviews with Nawabi.  He then worked with animators to bring the story to life. The film is animation mixed with news footage of incidents that shaped Nawabi’s life – the latter of which helps further ground the film.

PROUDLY SUPPORTS ORIGINAL-CIN

The approach is unusual, but it offered Nawabi the ability to tell his story anonymously. (Amin Nawabi is a pseudonym. His “character” is voiced at different ages by Daniel Karimyar and Fardin Mijdzadeh.)

His story is sadly familiar. Under real threat by the Taliban, a family in Afghanistan decides to flee after the father is taken away to an unknown fate. Traveling with what they have, the family lands in the first place that will have them, which is Moscow. Life there sees them rely on money from an older brother to both survive and to bankroll their dealings with the only people they feel can help them to a new life: human traffickers.  

Ultimately, Amin ends up in Denmark. There he goes to school, establishes himself in a profession and thrives in many ways. But he’s still hiding parts of his past, that are holding him back from fully embracing his life. 

As he tells his story to his friend, and to all of us, the burdens of secrecy fall away. Amin is freed to live in the present tense.  

Rasmussen tells the story so that we understand what Nawabi has been through without sensationalizing. As you’d imagine, it is a story that is at times harrowing and at other times frustrating. For much of it, the family is stuck in the tedium of endless waiting for positive movement that will allow them to be recognized as citizens. And yet the strength of family holds them together.

Throughout, Rasmussen never loses focus on the humanity. He’s telling the story, not of a refugee, but of a fellow human being whom he knows personally. 

The rapport between the two, the quiet honesty with which Amin speaks and the respectful and obviously deeply affectionate way in which Rasmussen tells the story, makes this film something special.

Flee. Directed and co-written by Jonas Poher Rasmussen. Voiced by Daniel Karimyar and Fardin Mijdzadeh. In theatres in Toronto on Friday, December 17 and across Canada early in 2022.