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Danish filmmaker Jonas Poher Rasmussen tells his childhood friends challenging story with a blend of animation and authenticity. setTimeout(function () { So when he was talking about being in his house, I would ask him, What did the garden look like? var append_element = append_element || function(e){if(void 0==e)return!1;if(! Ahmed would voice Amin. popupTrigger.css('visibility', 'visible'); }, 50); "Flee" tells the story of Amin Nawabi, a gay Danish citizen and former Afghan refugee who has become a succesful academic. Helmersson too started with Amins voice. The movie is not a fun-filled adventure, like most animated films are. In Danish, Dari and Russian with subtitles. The interview technique, which you see in the film, it looks like therapy but it actually comes from radio, says Rasmussen. It was edited by Fatma Tanis and Sarah Handel. The movie also made the rounds at several other international film festivals, including the Toronto International Film Festival, the New York Film Festival and DOC NYC. Its a reminder of our common humanity.. Nawabi and Kasper were also looking for a new place to live in Copenhagen. }); project. } Flee recounts the years-long journey of an anonymous gay Afghan refugee (hereon referred to as Amin Nawabi). Passion and obsession intertwine in Fire of Love, With characters wise and reassuring, animated short The Boy, the Mole comforts, The prosecutor, and the actor who plays him, on taking down Argentinas military regime. }, 10); }); textContent: 'var frmRef=""; try { frmRef=window.top.location.href; } catch(err) {}; var captainform_servicedomain="app.captainform.com";var cfJsHost = "https://";', "There were a lot of fear and uncertainties," he said. Its a subjective truth because he is holding back things or trying not to remember, but the recording is the truth as Amin saw it.. Amin Mita, South River, NJ holds a Architect license according to the New York license board. if('' == 'floating') { Contact Us With a dental savings plan, Under all of this chaos and strife, Amin and his mother were forced to separate from the rest of the family, and they both fled to Moscow together in the early 1990s. He also says that his mother told him that Ahktar was one of 3,000 people who were rounded up in a day raid and imprisoned. He was killed because he was considered to be a threat to the Communist government, according to var captainformDomReady = captainformDomReady || function(e){var t=!1,n=function(){document.addEventListener? Wed provide him with a lot of footage, so to speak, that he could play with, like you would with a documentary., Says Jansen, It was fantastic, because at the start, anything we could dream up we could get: a drone shot of Kabul city in the 1980s, Amin [at] 5 years old, dancing in his sisters nightshirt. I think he was a little scared that people would be just kind of like, Huh, and then walk on.. textContent: 'var frmRef=""; try { frmRef=window.top.location.href; } catch(err) {}; var captainform_servicedomain="app.captainform.com";var cfJsHost = "https://";', We started meeting up at the bus stop every morning, going to high school, and we became friends I was always curious about why he arrived, but he didnt want to talk about it. ), and eventually closed out as the winner of this years World Cinema Grand Jury Prize: Documentary. if ('' == 'left') Keeping secrets, you keep people at a certain distance because youre afraid of being exposed. jQuery(wrapper).css('top', jQuery(window).height() * 0.4 + wrapper.width() + wrapper.css('padding').replace('px', '') * 2); He said then he wasnt ready but when he was, he would share his story with me. The set design for the films flashback sequences was just as fastidious. } And be reminded that this is a real person. contractors online are twice as likely to be happy at the end of their This search for acceptance sets Rasmussens interpretation of Nawabis take apart from the rest. Licensed contractors contribute $200 to DCA's Trust Fund at the time of application and each time they renew or post a bond. Birthplace: Not Available. This keeps the viewers attention on his voice, rather than relying upon a visual aid; the story remains true to Nawabi than it does to Rasmussen. var append_element = append_element || function(e){if(void 0==e)return!1;if(! Animation director Kenneth Ladekjaer worked from the footage Rasmussen had shot, closely copying aspects of Amins style and behavior the way he gestures and speaks, how he wipes his tears away when he cries while making slight alterations to protect the identity of the real Amin. Amin, his mother, his two sisters and his beloved older brother Saif escape the country with the aid of greedy and sadistic traffickers. jQuery(wrapper).find('a').removeAttr('href'); Flee was produced by Cinephil and will be co-distributed by Neon and Participant. Animation can add visuals to enhance the tone and meaning of the storytelling. Amin says he knew he was gay since he was about 5 or 6 years old. disputes, and guarantee satisfaction. Chris Pine finally sets the record straight, Before and after photos from space show storms effect on California reservoirs, Dramatic before and after photos from space show epic snow blanketing SoCal mountains, The chance of a lifetime: Five friends ski the tallest mountain in Los Angeles, Shocking, impossible gas bills push restaurants to the brink of closures, Oscars diversity improved after #OscarsSoWhite, study shows. In radio, you dont have an image, but by getting someone to lie down, close their eyes and talk in the present tense about things that happened in the past, they start to generate images inside their own head images they pass on to the audience.. Home? says Amin. Theres a part of the story where Amin confesses that in order to get through certain national borders, he had to lie and say that all of his immediate family members are dead. And it all started with a voice. The story, told mostly through animation, centers around Amin Nawabi (a pseudonym used to protect the identity of the real person), who grew up a gender non-conforming kid in Afghanistan. }); Acquired out of Sundance and released nationwide by Participant and Neon earlier this year, the film connected with critics and audiences across the world with its empathetic telling of Nawabis escape from Kabul as a young boy with his mother and siblings. Amins father Akhtar Nawabi was a pilot, but he died tragically. var wrapper = jQuery('#captainformForm772605EmbedPopup63ffe3583dcbe'); and well try to help! Nawabis own self-reflections give the documentary a more human investigation into his chaotic debut into puberty and in so doing, a more personalized picture of his character. Flee opens in theaters in New York and Los Angeles on Friday, with an expansion to more theaters planned for January. One of his earliest celebrity crushes was actor Jean-Claude Van Damme. Listen to Amins voice. Now Hollywood Shuffle is a classic, Remember that Harry Styles Spitgate drama? But as their interviews progressed and Amin got deeper and deeper into his own past, he became more concerned about losing control of his story. He also talks about what it was like to live in a country for the first time where he didnt have to worry about being arrested for being gay. There would be longer pauses between words. Its shifting and somewhat unreliable form intuitively reflects how its subject has hidden the truth of his past from others over the years, including his partner, Kasper, and his longtime friend, the director. The film explores Amins relationship with Kasper, a Danish man who would become his husband. jQuery(wrapper).css('top', jQuery(window).height() * 0.4 - wrapper.outerHeight()); The Danish-French-Swedish-Norwegian production marked the first acquisition of Sundance (sold to Neon for seven figures! Contact Us "I think it's quite limiting to not be able to disclose intimate information about yourself to your friends," he said. Accepting the Gotham Award, Rasmussen noted it was an eight-year process to make the film. Being a refugee is "not an identity, it's a circumstance of life," he says. } clearInterval(captainForm772605PreloadInterval63ffe3583d2ea); (Najibullah was assassinated in 1996.). For Amin, the process seems therapeutic, helping him process the guilt, shame and fear he carries scar tissue of never feeling fully accepted anywhere hes lived. captainformThemeStyle['772605'] = ''; So I thought, OK, we need to see that, that emotion, because that feels more honest than showing a clear image of what actually happened., Adds Flee editor Janus Billeskov Jansen, All the time we were guided by the truth, which was Amins recording. Were any details falsified? For him, watching the film was an emotional experience. In participating regions, you'll also hear a local news segment to help you make sense of what's going on in your community.Email us at considerthis@npr.org. Jonas Poher Rasmussens animated documentary, which won the World Cinema grand jury prize at Sundance and bowed Dec. 3 in the U.S. via Neon and Participant, could become the first film to secure Academy Award nominations in the categories of best international feature (for Denmark), documentary and animated feature. ("elementType"in e))return!1;var n=null;if(n=e.following?e.following.parentElement:e.inside?e.inside:e.replacing?e.replacing.parentElement:"script"==e.elementType?document.head:document.body,null==n)return!1;var l=document.createElement(e.elementType);delete e.elementType,l=jQuery.extend(l,e),e.replacing?n.replaceChild(l,e.replacing):n.appendChild(l)}; } The basis of Flee was long audio interviews with Amin Nawabi, who has known director Jonas Poher Rasmussen since they were 15. The login page will open in a new tab. contractors are. We knew the date they arrived and we knew the ship, so it was about going through the archive material to find the ship they were on. WebThis dentist accepts the following plans. }, 10); Amins father Akhtar Nawabi was a pilot, but he died tragically. We both had long-term relationships that ended the same summer, so we had this kind of heartbreak [time] together. The movie includes Nawabis account of his coming out journey as a gay man in environments where homophobia is rampant and often sanctioned by the government. But Flee is perhaps one of the most unforgettable and emotionally moving accounts that someone can see in a movie. In the interviews, Amin told his friend of growing up gay in Afghanistan where homosexuality brought shame on a family. He lives 10 miles from my place in Copenhagen He saw the film and really liked it as well, and wanted to be part of it.. 2023 Variety Media, LLC. elementType: "script", His experiences with coming out as gay werent easy, but he describes finding acceptance about his sexuality in some unexpected places. The film Flee has already made Oscars history: it's the first to be nominated for best documentary, animated feature and international film. For Flee, Jansen and Rasmussen combined the two approaches. Its someplace safe. Jen Yamato is a film reporter for the Los Angeles Times. Truth be told, we dont need to see or know everything to respect the gift of hearing all that hes been through. type: "text/javascript", Animation proves an ideal medium by which to both mask and reveal the identity of a gay man who escaped Afghanistan and reinvented himself. When he tells us that he was always different, dressing in his sisters dresses from a young age, we can conclude that hes homosexual long before Amin knew this about himself. var readyStateOverflowInterval; if (document.getElementById('captainform_js_global_vars') == null) { Home; Bath and Shower; Flooring; Painting; Swimming Pools Spas; Lighting; Doors; Kitchen Improvements But here, because you are not exposed to a human face, because its animation, I think it makes it possible to take it in. Art director Jess Nicholls deliberately avoided watching animated documentaries like the 2008 Oscar-nominated Waltz With Bashir so as to not accidentally end up copying them. Instead, she says, she read books about street life in 1980s Kabul, scrolled through archive footage of Moscow in the early 1990s and pored over maps and building schematics. Unlock this free profile "Now I am able to talk about these things. var readyStateOverflowInterval; resize77260663ffe3583d0a3(wrapper); Its not someplace temporary. Its that feeling of permanent safety that Nawabi says he has been seeking for most of his life so far. The Neon release from director Jonas Poher Rasmussen won the Gotham Award for Best Documentary Feature on Monday, burnishing an awards run that began with the top prize for international documentary at the Sundance Film Festival earlier this year. } Running parallel to the story of Amin the refugee is the story of Amin coming to terms with his harrowing history and with his own identity from the first stirrings of sexual awakening, prompted by a revealing Bloodsport poster featuring a short-shorted Jean-Claude Van Damme, to asking a Danish Red Cross social worker for medication to cure him of his unnatural desires, to living a settled, open life as a gay man and preparing to marry his partner, Kaspar. if (document.getElementById('captainform_js_global_vars') == null) { Theres something really startling about whats been happening with Ukraine, just as there was something for many of us so startling happening during the war on terror as well, said Ahmed. Akhtars family was able to visit him in jail. Its probably an indication that they also fear retribution for being involved in telling this story. Rasmussen met Nawabi decades ago. They must live with the resulting portrait of their life forever. Amin recalled that after he was resettled in Denmark, he told adults he wanted to take a pill to cure himself of being gay. var wrapper = jQuery('#captainformForm772605EmbedPopup63ffe3583dcbe'); var wrapper = jQuery('#captainformForm772606EmbedPopup63ffe3583da98'); resize77260563ffe3583dcbe(wrapper); Or the moment when Amin enters the gay bar in Stockholm, enters that whole colorful, wonderful world [a moment] that makes me cry no matter how many times I see it.. Able to visit him in jail journey of an anonymous gay Afghan refugee ( hereon to... Blend of animation and authenticity see or know everything to respect the gift of hearing that... A film reporter for the Los Angeles Times and Sarah Handel celebrity crushes was Jean-Claude... 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