Flee

Flee - Film - Jonas Poher Rasmussen - 2021

Flee tells the true story of a young Afghan who had to flee his country to reach Denmark. There, he obtained refugee status and went on to build a brilliant academic career. The director met Amin, the hero's pseudonym, in high school when the young Afghan was still an unaccompanied minor. Since then, Amin has become a renowned university professor in Europe and the United States. He is even about to buy a superb house with his Danish partner. Thanks to the filmmaker's sympathetic ear, Amin gradually retraces his path of exile, cautiously delving back into memories that had been buried deep in his past. As his story unfolds, so do the traumas. Secrets, terrors and vulnerability suddenly weaken a man who seems to have found his place in the world. Amin is still trying to find his way between the loyalties owed to his family, his native culture and his host culture. And to himself, through his homosexuality. Indeed, Amin, his pseudonym, means "loyal" in Arabic. The animation is in color, but the traumatic events are drawn in black and white, in scenes that are sometimes abstract, but always modest and powerful. This powerful and sensitive tale of exile delicately underlines the psychotraumas that punctuate Amin's journey and that of his family. Their invisible impact hinders his daily life and his relationships with others, and prevents him from sharing his story, even with his lover. This film, which is neither militant nor maudlin, is a remarkable and sober testimony to a theme that is exploited to the dregs, especially by those unfamiliar with it. It leaves the viewer more human.

• Film