Flee

A documentary told through animation. Amin lives in Denmark today, has an academic career and is about to be married. He agrees to tell the director, a friend from childhood, the story he has told nobody for years. It begins in Kabul. The family loses his father; amid changes of regime the country becomes unsafe and the mother flees with her children. The Moscow section is at the centre. A family whose visas have run out waits for months in a flat, hiding from the police and bargaining with smugglers. The siblings are sent at different times by different routes; one group in a container, another by sea. The second line is Amin's sexuality. He describes how he made sense of himself when there was not even a word for it where he came from. The form came out of necessity: Amin cannot reveal his identity, so his face and voice are protected and the story is drawn. Real archive footage cuts in between. Jonas Poher Rasmussen directed. The film was nominated for best documentary, best international feature and best animated feature at the Academy Awards at the same time, the first production ever to take all three. An important production for anyone interested in documentary and stories of migration. Before you watch, know this: the narrative is heavy and some sections are direct.