(Film still from NEON)
ORLANDO | “Flee,” an animated documentary film that became the talk of film festivals in 2021, is making its debut in Central Florida at the Enzian Theater in Maitland Feb. 4-10.
The film is directed by Danish filmmaker Jonas Poher Rasmussen and tells the story of his friend Amin Nawabi, an Afghan refugee who fled his home country with his family in the 1980s.
“Flee” opens with a question: “What does the word ‘home’ mean to you?” As the viewer mulls over the question, we meet Amin in the present day as he is currently living. He is an openly gay man who lives in Denmark with his fiancé and their pet cat. He seems to have a good life for himself but he is haunted by the stories of his past.
Rasmussen tells Amin’s personal story mostly through animation. This was done to keep Amin’s identity a secret — Amin Nawabi is a pseudonym — for his and his family’s protection but it allows the filmmaker to not just tell the audience Amin’s stories but show them through animated flashbacks.
The film tells two parallel stories of Amin; the first of he and his family’s escape from war-torn Afghanistan to an unstable Soviet Union, where they must keep a low profile for fear of being caught and sent back to Afghanistan or forced to pay off the officers to stay, until they can make enough money to move on to Europe. The second is Amin’s private struggle of dealing with his same-sex attractions and coming to terms with being gay.
“Flee” balances these two struggles brilliantly with significant life-changing events — like Amin, his brother and mother being imprisoned in Estonia during an attempt to flee Russia — with personal yet not any less significant to Amin events such as realizing his same-sex attractions with his first male crush on Jean-Claude Van Damme.
The idea of animating a documentary or true-life biographical film isn’t a new concept. Both 2007’s “Persepolis” and 2008’s “Waltz with Bashir” are excellent films that utilize animation to elevate their stories, and “Flee” joins them as some of the best examples of this medium.
“Persepolis” and “Waltz with Bashir” both earned Academy Award nominations; “Persepolis” for Best Animated Feature Film and “Waltz with Bashir” for Best Foreign Language Film (changed in 2020 to Best International Feature Film), but neither won in their category.
With this year’s Academy Award nominations being announced Feb. 8, “Flee” is expected to receive three nominations: Best Animated Feature, Best Documentary Feature and Best International Film, a feat that would make “Flee” the first film in Oscar history to obtain nominations in those three categories. Each nomination, if received, would be deserving and if “Flee” were to win any or all of those Oscars, that too would be deserving. A nomination in the Best Picture category would even be a welcomed, but not unwarranted, surprise as “Flee” isn’t just the best animated, best documentary and best international film I’ve seen from 2021, but it is one of the best films of the year period.
“Flee” is one of those films that sits with you days and weeks after you see it, especially given the events of last year with the U.S.’s withdraw from Afghanistan, and makes you realize how important it is to hear stories from refugees: Where they came from, who they are and why they fled.
“Flee” is distributed by NEON with Riz Ahmed and Nikolaj Coster-Waldau serving as executive producers. The film is certified fresh with a 98% on Rotten Tomatoes, is rated PG-13 and is in English, Danish, Dari, Russian and Swedish with English subtitles.
“Flee” opens at the Enzian Theater in Maitland Feb. 4 at 5:45 p.m. and runs for one week only. Tickets can be purchased at Enzian.org/Film/Flee.
