Flee, an animated film to give a human face to Afghan refugees

Flee

, an animated film telling the true story of the trapped flight to Europe of a young homosexual Afghan refugee, succeeds thanks to his drawings to put a human face on this international crisis while preserving anonymity of the one who inspired him.

Jonas Poher Rasmussen is the author of this hybrid documentary, awarded at the Sundance and Annecy festivals and which will be Denmark's official candidate for the next Oscars.

It was his friendship with Amin that gave him the idea for this project, the director tells

.

remembers Jonas Rasmussen, now 40 years old.

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Initially, Amin did not want to talk about what he had been through, fearing for his status as an asylum seeker but also to be seen as a victim.

It was in 2013 that the director, specializing in documentaries for the radio, had the idea of ​​translating the interviews with his friend on the big screen, in the form of an animated film.

“This way, he can share his story and still meet people without suffering from preconceptions.

These people will not know his most intimate secrets, his traumas, ”

explains the author.

Because

is filled with trauma, since the disappearance of Amin's father in Kabul in the 1980s, in the midst of the communist regime, until his family's decision to leave the capital, surrounded by Islamist fighters in 1996.

Real archive footage from that time included in the documentary is eerily reminiscent of the Taliban capture of Kabul this summer.

, loose Jonas Rasmussen, whose film had been selected for the 2020 edition of the Cannes Film Festival, finally canceled due to Covid.

And from Denmark, Amin witnessed the sad spectacle of

.

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Van Damme and Bollywood

Flee is

particularly concerned with the now too familiar fate of the thousands of refugees who risk their lives every day to flee conflict zones and reach Europe.

In a poignant sequence represented by minimalist sketches, Amin's sisters find themselves trapped in a suffocating container as they seek to reach Scandinavia aboard a cargo ship crossing the Baltic Sea.

Amin himself will later make this crossing on an overcrowded boat taking water from everywhere but will be intercepted by the Estonian coast guard.

According to Rasmussen, this use of animation

than employing actors to play the police officers arresting migrants.

," he says.

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The director was inspired by

, an Israeli animated film dedicated to the testimony of former soldiers who took part in the Lebanese war in 1982. Watching it, he found it easier to follow a story without seeing the real ones

.

.

Animation also helps introduce a dose of humor to tragic events, for example when Amin remembers the pink walkman he listened to pop on when he was young in Kabul, which gives a sequence of pencil sketches reminiscent of the famous clip of the group A-ha,

.

Jean-Claude van Damme and Bollywood stars, the young boy's secret loves at the time, wink at him from posters or screens.

said the director, who hopes to retrace the story

.