While they’re not all that common, we have seen a number of acclaimed animated features make huge debuts at film festivals over the years. But even with that knowledge, it’s likely you haven’t seen an animated film quite like “Flee.”
READ MORE: ‘Flee’ Is A Stellar Exploration Of Refuge Trauma [Sundance Review]
As seen in the trailer for the film, “Flee” is a bold mixture of documentary and animated narrative feature, as it tells the true story of one man, Amin Nawabi, and his harrowing story of being a child refugee from Afghanistan. The film uses real-life interviews with Amin as he recounts his story and why he’s kept it a secret from his partner, but the feature does this through stunning animation, bringing to life his story as if it’s pulled from his own memories.
“Flee” earned acclaim from this year’s Sundance, where it was awarded the Grand Jury Prize for World Cinema Documentary. The film is directed by Jonas Poher Rasmussen and produced by Riz Ahmed, Nikolaj Coster-Waldau, Monica Hellström, and Signe Byrge Sørensen.
READ MORE: ‘Coda’ Dominates 2021 Sundance Film Festival Awards, ‘Flee’ Wins The Grand Jury Prize
As mentioned, “Flee” debuted to rapturous acclaim at this year’s Sundance. And in our review, we said, “And while there have been multiple documentaries and narrative features conveying their pain over the past decade, there is something striking in the animated storytelling of ‘Flee’ that makes this particular struggle exceptionally poignant and humane. To say it’s a stellar feat of cinema is something of an understatement.”
“Flee” is arriving in theaters this fall. Watch the new trailer below.
Here’s the synopsis:
Sundance Grand Jury Prize winner FLEE tells the story of Amin Nawabi as he grapples with a painful secret he has kept hidden for 20 years, one that threatens to derail the life he has built for himself and his soon-to-be husband. Recounted mostly through animation to director Jonas Poher Rasmussen, he tells the story of his extraordinary journey as a child refugee from Afghanistan for the first time.