In a taped address aired Tuesday morning, Duterte said he is not questioning the authority and the power of the Senate to investigate in aid of legislation. Later, Amin experiences a brief, powerful crush on a fellow migrant during one of the legs of his journey.President Rodrigo Duterte has required Cabinet members to get a clearance from him first before they can attend the Senate investigation into the government's purchase of allegedly overpriced pandemic-related supplies. Amin discovers his sexuality via a fascination with the Belgian action star Jean-Claude Van Damme, whom he imagines winking at him from a poster on his bedroom wall in Kabul. To be an immigrant in Denmark and a gay man in Afghanistan are hardly equivalent, but the nuances of both experiences yield some touching, surprising and funny moments. As much as “Flee” is a refugee’s tale of flight and eventual settling, it’s also a coming-out story, and as such a complex reflection on different forms of outsiderhood. The director is receptive to Amin’s secrets and aware of the nuances of his personality. The fact that it arose out of Rasmussen’s friendship with Amin creates a feeling of trust. Less a sociological case study than a psychological portrait, the film is both probing and tactful.
“Flee” acknowledges Amin’s good fortune - and offers quiet testimony to the decency and generosity of Danish society - while also reckoning with what it cost him.
He’s about to take up a postdoc at Princeton, and he and his fiancé, Kasper, are thinking about buying a house. His reminiscences are interwoven with scenes from his adult life. Scandinavia seems more promising, but getting there is expensive and dangerous, and requires some agonizing choices.įrom the start, we know that Amin made it safely to Copenhagen. Russia is home for a while, but after 1989 it becomes an increasingly treacherous place, a land of poverty, corruption and brutal weather. “Flee” may be about a pressing global issue - the plight of refugees displaced by war and other emergencies since at least the 1980s - but it’s also about a specific person’s life.Īnother brother lives in Sweden, and the rest of the family relies on his help once they flee to Moscow. That creates not only suspense, as we wonder what will happen to Amin and his family, but also a powerful feeling of intimacy.
And while the narrative moves mostly in a straight line, it also doubles back and encounters obstacles, proceeding into the past by means of association, indirection and the overcoming of repressed knowledge. But the voice that tells the story belongs to him, and the story itself is filtered through painful memories that he has kept to himself for a long time.Īt the start of the movie, Amin lies on his back with his eyes closed as Rasmussen prepares to film, a setup that suggests a cartoon version of psychoanalysis. He’s called Amin, and the animation adds a further layer of protection.
“Home - what does it mean to you?” That’s the question that hovers over “Flee,” Jonas Poher Rasmussen’s piercing animated documentary about a high school friend of his who emigrated from Afghanistan to Denmark as a teenager.įor reasons that become clear in the course of the film, the friend - now a grown man with a solid relationship and a flourishing academic career - is given a pseudonym.
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