FLEE

'What does home mean to you?'
'Home? It’s someplace safe. A place where you can stay and never have to leave …'

Amin’s joyous youth abruptly comes to a halt. His father is arrested by the extremist Mujahideen and the entire family has to flee. It is the start of a dangerous journey that will forever scar them. After long meanderings through Russia and Scandinavia, Amin finally arrives in Denmark, all alone. His family has vanished. Twenty years later, Amin has a successful academic career and has a loving relationship with Kasper, his boyfriend. Kasper wants them to buy a house together, but Amin is terrified to commit himself to one place. He realises he has no choice but to face his past if he ever wants to find inner peace. Amin therefore seeks refuge with dear friend and film-maker Jonas Poher Rasmussen. They have known each other since high school, but even he has no idea what deep secrets Amin carries with him.

With Flee, Rasmussen succeeds in giving a face to stories of faraway war refugees, who were previously often labelled ‘the other’. The choice for animation was made to give Amin – which is a pseudonym – the necessary protection so he could finally tell his heart-wrenching story. The realistic, yet playful, drawing style lends itself to surpass the indifference of media coverage, and hit viewers straight in the heart. Flee opens your eyes and shows that a refugee’s story does not start nor end with the arrival in a new country.