Flee

I caught this Perth Festival preview screening at the Backlot last week and it's an ambitious film that also feels quite low-key, almost like the filmmaker, Jonas Poher Rasmussen wanted to downplay the fortitude of those involved. This works in its favour, as the hardships and menace that the 'characters' go through are accentuated all the more by the lack of histrionics. Flee is about a man, Amin (not his real name), who escaped Afghanistan and the Mujahideen in the 1990s and is now, on the verge of settling down to marriage with his husband, ready to tell the tale to his old school friend. 

It has an interesting structure - it's mostly animation created to match documented audio interviews, voice actors doing 'recreations' of events, with archived footage of news events of the 90s (human trafficking, Afghan bloodshed, Russian supermarkets during the fall of communism, etc). Rasmussen says:

“I wanted to add this footage to the movie so that every time you see a newsreel, you are reminded that this is at heart a documentary,” says Rasmussen. “It’s creating a historical context for the movie, but it’s also telling the audience that this story is real — it’s not fiction.”

The film's success lies in the way it gets its message of inclusion, empathy and tolerance across without resorting to finger-pointing (when it really could have gone nuts with the fingers), and the very intimate family moments that underpin the film. Starting with Amin skipping through the Kabul streets in his sister's clothes, to the scene in Sweden when he comes out to some of his family, there are plenty of nicely weighted moments.

There are many ANONs in the credits, presumably this is a method of protecting those still at risk, as Amin says at one point, 'There is no word for homosexuality in Afghanistan'. The buzz Flee is getting, especially now around awards season, might hopefully shine a light on some of the issues, though I can't help thinking, people will just go on peopling. 

Incidentally, this is the first time a film has been nominated in the categories of Animation, International and Documentary at the Academy Awards. It's not clear favourite in any of them (at time of writing) but it might nab at least one. 

See also:

There are hints of Barry Jenkins' Moonlight (2016) and, due to some funny Van Damme references, I'll point you to his best film, Mabrouk El Mechri's JCVD (2008).