Flee: In The Shade Film Festival Review

Director: Jonas Poher Rasmussen 

Jonas Poher Rasmussen's animated tale of refugees and redemption is adept at humanising the face of a section of the human populace so often demonised by shallow headlines and attention-grabbing reporting.

Focussing in on a series of animated interviews with Amin Nawabi, a refugee forced to abandon his family home in Afghanistan, Rasmussen weaves a story of lives disrupted and of families torn asunder by conflict.

Mixing animation, archival Super 8 footage and evocative songs from the 80s pop scene, Rasmussen's tale of a refugee caught out in the system is nothing short of compellingly told, and emotionally exceptional. 

It's a survivor's story at heart, but importantly, it's never a story about a victim - conversely, there's a feeling of empowerment throughout Rasmussen's simplistic telling of Amin's story.

There's an immersive feel to this tale as it pulls the audience into proceedings, and cleverly does it without ever once feeling like Amin's tale is being exploited for cinematic expression. In fact, it's more a shared story of resilience and of memories deeply buried and only recently excavated.

For all the feelings of uncertainty throughout, of traffickers and the horrors of trying to find stability in a home that's "somewhere safe", the film ends on a joyous note of celebration as Amin ends up going to a gay nightclub after years of being unable to tell family members. 

It's this scene which provides the undeniable qualities of family, and of evocative joy and of support from unexpected places - after all the harsher truths throughout Flee, the final feeling is hard to deny.