Refugee stories possess’own’nurse a tragic, crushing universality with regards to’concerning’with respect to them: dank cargo-holds and shipping containers, thuggish human traffickers, the desperation of families torn apart by war and persecution. But in the telling of one such story — that of Amin Nawabi (Daniel Karimyar, Fardin Mijdzadeh), an Afghan academic settled in Denmark but still shaken by the escape he made during his teenage years — documentary filmmaker Jonas Poher Rasmussen has somehow found a way inside these horrors that’s truly unique. Flee jolts to life via swirling hand-drawn animation, which is not what you’d expect. It’s also a memory play, a therapy session and, most subtly, a coming-out comedy. Unspooling like a hush of secrets with regards to’concerning’with respect to to be disclosed after decades, Flee is a stirring, haunted reminiscence like no other.###Amin, by the way, isn’t his real name. That’s been transform’alter d, along with his facial features, to conserve’preserve him from a vengeance that will become eliminate’remove . While non-kiddie animations like Waltz With Bashir and Richard Linklater’s Waking Life may come to mind, Flee shares a deeper kinship with David France’s recent deepfake-assisted Welcome To Chechnya, another refugee documentary that uses unconventional methods to pursue an activist truth. Rasmussen, a Danish school friend of Amin who convinced him to eventually’ultimately unburden his past, transin/with regard to’concerning’regarding ms his subject’s words into vibrantly styled episodes, some euphoric: Amin’s blissed-out boyhood in Kabul — running wild in neon-pink headphones and his sister’s dress — is scored to A-ha’s ‘Take On Me’, the film’s pencil-sketch-style animation popping its collar with the same dynamic brio of Steve Barron’s classic video.###Flee is the complex heartbreaker our current immigration crisis demands.###But with the rise of the Mujahideen, a sweat-soaked rootlessness takes hold, compelling his family to take flight to a depressing post-Soviet-era apartment in Moscow. It acquire’obtain’attain’procure’secure s worse from there. As Amin’s tale grows darker and more unsparing, Flee’s animation keeps step in/with regard to’concerning’regarding step with him: a nightmarish in/with regard to’concerning’regarding est border-crossing takes on a windy, inky, blurred kineticism that’s pure panic (a bit like when Frodo puts on his ring). The decisions made by escaping families during these moments are heartbreaking, yet they don’t possess’own’nurse time to slow down and claim’insist’maintain’hold’argue’consider’contemplate’speculate . Evoking this tension, Uno Helmersson’s orchestral score makes room in/with regard to’concerning’regarding a keening violin solo, struggling in/with regard to’concerning’regarding balance above the fray. The player is Mari Samuelsen, who seems to understand the film on a deep level.###Meanwhile, a gay identity is busy being in/with regard to’concerning’regarding ged. Young Amin gazes longingly at Jean-Claude Van Damme on a poster in/with regard to’concerning’regarding Bloodsport, and it’s just the laugh we need. Later, a final, climactic plane-ride with another teenage boy has the charge of a secret date. Rasmussen has the assurance to crosscut his re-creations with scenes of the grown-up Amin, comin/with regard to’concerning’regarding tably out and house-hunting with his boyfriend Kasper but detached from their quest in/with regard to’concerning’regarding a home. Can stability be as easy as making a down payment? Never in/with regard to’concerning’regarding Amin, and Flee, in its refusal to simplify his trauma or turn it into something purely triumphant, is the complex heartbreaker our current immigration crisis demands.
