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Flee
Multiple movie genres and storytelling techniques are blended to extraordinary effect in a Danish import called Flee, a 2021 documentary blending animation and live action where technical artistry and moving story meld into a film experience that has earned three Oscar nominations.
The story is presented in animated flashback as a young man named Amin is beginning to recall the story of his life to documentarian. The story then flashes back to late 1960's Kabol, Afghanistan where we meet a pre-teen Amin living with his mother, sisters, and brothers after their father had disappeared mysteriously after joining the Afghanistan military.
Young Amin is not only struggling with what happened to his father, but his own sexual identity. Amin confesses to having what he feels are unnatural feelings about Jean Claude Van Damme.
The story flashes forward to his adulthood where he meets a young man named Kasper who he plans to marry, but their happiness becomes dependent on his revealing parts of his past he has tried to keep hidden. The story again flashes back and reveals how Amin and his family escaped from human traffickers by escape on foot and eventual freedom from Afghanistan via the bottom level of a ship.
Director and co-screenwriter Jonas Poher Rasmussen has accomplished something extraordinary here. He has produced a documentary in the form of an animated feature length film featuring live action archival footage. Not sure what Rasmussen's conceptual process was here, but it produced, utilizing a another phrase that I have been misusing for ever, a singularly unique film experience. This is the first documentary told primarily in animated form and I'm pretty sure it's the first animated feature film with a gay central character. We even get the first animated kiss between two men. But it's the mixture of filmmaking techniques that makes this film so special. Our introduction to Amin is animated but as he narrates about the state of the state in Afghanistan, we get a live action look at the war torn country and the effects on the people...I loved the shots of the supermarkets with miles of empty freezer space because there is no food.
The scene where Amin and his family are being forced into the bough of the ship reminded me of the Frank family in the attic in The Diary of Anne Frank and as one of the family members begins getting sick in the crowded space, the scene becomes almost unwatchable. On the other side of the entertainment spectrum, I loved the scene where young Amin and his family are watching TV and Amin gets his first exposure to Jean Claude Van Damme.
The film has been nominated for Best International Film, Best Feature Documentary, and Best Animated Feature Length and I'm pretty sure it will win at least one of these. One technical award it should have been nominated for was sound...listen to the background when Amin and his family are escaping to the border...perfect wind and storm sounds that add so much intensity to the escape. Not for all tastes, but a monumental achievement in the art of cinematic storytelling. One of the producers of this film was Oscar nominee Riz Ahmed.
Multiple movie genres and storytelling techniques are blended to extraordinary effect in a Danish import called Flee, a 2021 documentary blending animation and live action where technical artistry and moving story meld into a film experience that has earned three Oscar nominations.
The story is presented in animated flashback as a young man named Amin is beginning to recall the story of his life to documentarian. The story then flashes back to late 1960's Kabol, Afghanistan where we meet a pre-teen Amin living with his mother, sisters, and brothers after their father had disappeared mysteriously after joining the Afghanistan military.
Young Amin is not only struggling with what happened to his father, but his own sexual identity. Amin confesses to having what he feels are unnatural feelings about Jean Claude Van Damme.
The story flashes forward to his adulthood where he meets a young man named Kasper who he plans to marry, but their happiness becomes dependent on his revealing parts of his past he has tried to keep hidden. The story again flashes back and reveals how Amin and his family escaped from human traffickers by escape on foot and eventual freedom from Afghanistan via the bottom level of a ship.
Director and co-screenwriter Jonas Poher Rasmussen has accomplished something extraordinary here. He has produced a documentary in the form of an animated feature length film featuring live action archival footage. Not sure what Rasmussen's conceptual process was here, but it produced, utilizing a another phrase that I have been misusing for ever, a singularly unique film experience. This is the first documentary told primarily in animated form and I'm pretty sure it's the first animated feature film with a gay central character. We even get the first animated kiss between two men. But it's the mixture of filmmaking techniques that makes this film so special. Our introduction to Amin is animated but as he narrates about the state of the state in Afghanistan, we get a live action look at the war torn country and the effects on the people...I loved the shots of the supermarkets with miles of empty freezer space because there is no food.
The scene where Amin and his family are being forced into the bough of the ship reminded me of the Frank family in the attic in The Diary of Anne Frank and as one of the family members begins getting sick in the crowded space, the scene becomes almost unwatchable. On the other side of the entertainment spectrum, I loved the scene where young Amin and his family are watching TV and Amin gets his first exposure to Jean Claude Van Damme.
The film has been nominated for Best International Film, Best Feature Documentary, and Best Animated Feature Length and I'm pretty sure it will win at least one of these. One technical award it should have been nominated for was sound...listen to the background when Amin and his family are escaping to the border...perfect wind and storm sounds that add so much intensity to the escape. Not for all tastes, but a monumental achievement in the art of cinematic storytelling. One of the producers of this film was Oscar nominee Riz Ahmed.