Viewings

Lies and a new life

A refugee’s story

THE MOVIE FLEE follows refugee Amin Nawabi and his ordeal to find a new home after leaving Afghanistan. This animated feature film uses sequences that look hand-drawn, interspersed with real footage. It is about the struggle to find a country that accepts Amin as a refugee, but it also talks about the price a refugee pays for leaving home, whether their journey is successful or not.

Amin’s family loses their father when he is still young. After being imprisoned by the communist government of Afghanistan, he vanishes from jail without explanation. The family is still waiting for answers about his fate when the fight between the Mujahedeen and government troops reaches the capital, Kabul. Leaving everything behind, the family flees to Russia. Here they hide, always fearful of being discovered, and dependent on the support of others. Their exile starts a constant cycle of paying smugglers for attempts to reach Europe, only to be defrauded of the money, or being discovered escaping and sent back to Russia. Between these escape attempts they wait in a legal limbo while hiding from the police, only protected by anonymity and sometimes a well-placed bribe.

Flee tells the story of refugee Amin Nawabi through animation and real footage. Image courtesy Madman Entertainment

Only by retelling and reliving what he experienced is Amin able to take the next step into a settled life

Flee Directed by Jonas Poher Rasmussen; written by Jonas Poher Rasmussen and Amin Nawabi; produced by Monica Hellström, Signe Byrge Sørensen and Charlotte de la Gournerie; runtime 90 minutes. Distributed in Australia by Madman Entertainment

The movie also shows another Amin. In the present, he is a successful migrant in Denmark, with a developing career and a loving boyfriend. He is separated from his family, however, and still carries the scars from his time as a refugee. Whatever he does, his past experiences influence how he interacts with the world. An overpowering feeling of guilt and debt – many others had to sacrifice much for him to have this new life – keeps him from settling down permanently. His work ethic is based on obligation, which leads to a strained relationship with his boyfriend. The irrational fear of being found out and deported is always present. It has become a part of Amin’s personality. Another influence on Amin’s life is the lies he had to tell to be accepted in his new country. The peopletraffickers who brought him to Denmark successfully created a new identity for him: a boy without family who lost everyone, and is without any documentation. Amin’s life becomes a lie, and that lie separates the family. When finally all of his family makes it out of Russia, they are spread out all over Europe. Getting a chance to visit his sisters, who almost suffocated in a shipping container on their way from Russia, takes Amin years. His lie becomes a part of his life, always driven by the fear of losing his visa and of being deported, maybe even back to Afghanistan. The most important journey that Amin undertakes in Flee is the one through his own story. Only by retelling and reliving what he experienced is he able to take the next step into a settled life with his boyfriend and later husband. Amin is lucky. He can revisit his history, find the right aesthetic, and work with director Jonas Poher Rasmussen and a film team to bring it to a format that garners numerous awards and even an Oscar nomination. Amin and the production team have created a very personal, realistic and compassionate depiction of the refugee experience, but above all, their story is complete. It does not ignore the refugee of the present over the refugee experiences of the past. For many refugees, the act of fleeing means a life of insecurity and exploitation, embedded in endless periods of waiting and hoping. Understanding refugees means understanding that all strategies they develop to overcome these challenges stay with them if they are successful in finding a new life. Some, like Amin, approach life as a challenge, being driven to excel and develop their skills. Many struggle to stop thinking and living like a refugee. Flee shows that this struggle is best tackled with the help of others, and that revisiting your story, however painful it may be, can be essential for starting the next part of your life. Reviewer Dr Roland Leikauf is the museum’s Curator of Post-war Migration.