In FLEE, the Grand Jury Prize winner at this year’s Sundance Festival, filmmaker Jonas Poher Rasmussen tells a poignant story of belonging and the search for identity. Amin’s life has been defined by his past and a secret he’s kept for over 20 years. Forced to leave his home country of Afghanistan as a young child with his mother and siblings, Amin now grapples with how his past will affect his future in Denmark and the life he is building with his soon-to-be husband. Told brilliantly through the use of animation to protect his identity, Amin looks back over his life, opening up for the first time about his past, his trauma, the truth about his family, and his acceptance of his own sexuality.
Flee is a remarkably humanising and complex film, expanding and expounding the kind of story that's too easily simplified. Rasmussen has created a loving and unsparing tribute to his friend, a brave survivor whose story I'll find impossible to forget. Benjamin Lee, The Guardian
I was floored by the emotional impact of Flee. This is a unique project that pushes forward our ideas of what documentary, animation, and refugee-centred narratives can be. I'm proud to help bring this project to life for English speaking audiences. Riz Ahmed, Executive Producer
"We miscommunicate," Amin says of a conversation he had in his adolescence with an Iranian man speaking Farsi while he, an Afghan, spoke Dari, but that statement is broader than two people and two languages. What are all the ways we fail to, or refuse to, understand another person? How does that decay into violence, into dehumanization, into negligence, into war? And when those gaps are fixed, what joy, what acceptance, and what love can be found? "Flee" asks those questions and then listens to their answers with open ears, open eyes, and an open heart, and the documentary is one of this year's best. Roxana Hadadi, rogerebert.com
Director
Jonas Poher Rasmussen
Date of release
2021
Running time
89 min
Country of origin
Denmark
Language
Danish (English subtitles)
Cert 15