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Cinema and Video

Review of the film "Flee", 2021. Animation, documentary, drama. Director Jonas Poer Rasmussen.

George Will Wainwright21/05/22 18:00811

On rotten tomatoes Flee received 98% positive reviews from critics and 92% from the audience, which shows that the film was enjoyed by almost everyone.

There is a very lively and accurate message at the beginning of the film — “Home is where it’s safe”. Set in the context of the “now”, the film helps you rethink many things, with the main character tacitly calling you to follow the difficult path of a refugee, to relive a traumatic past and to remember your native language, which is seemingly difficult to forget.

This full-bodied, true-to-life, emotion-packed story exposes the viewer’s feelings and experiences. Thanks to a great, unwavering human will, a desperate desire to survive and keep the family together, the viewer is lucky enough to see this film.

I love the delicate balance between the simplicity of the animation and the documentary (archive footage), which makes the film a genre universal and unique. The contrasting video sequence from black and white to colour animation from animation to video renders the story flowing smoothly and sets the accents very precisely.

At the same time the picture is not overloaded with dialogue, the colours are well chosen, the animation keeps the narrator intimate and conventionally anonymous, there is a lot of compositional space in the alternating shots and everything works wonders for the story. The viewer is not burdened with unnecessary experiences, but leaves room for reflection and conclusions. Jonas Rasmussen has beautifully crafted the flow of the narrative, he doesn’t diverge for a moment, we don’t learn what kind of doctorate, how Amin got his education or how he met his true partner, we are shown only the main events in the life of the hero and his family that bring him to the point today, where after 20 years of silence he finds the courage to share his experiences.

In summary, there is no escaping the past, it is important and we have to learn to live with it. Family is what helps you to live. Home is where your family is and where you can feel safe.


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