I wrote about Jonas Poher Rasmussen‘s “Flee” when it screened at the Sundance Film Festival this past January. This is an animated doc that uses Rotoscope-like animation to mask the identity of a gay man who escaped Afghanistan in the late ‘80s.
Rasmussen gives his John Doe the name of Amin Nawabi. He’s an Afghan refugee, and his animated face isn’t his real face, but the story he tells is very real, or so we’re told. The viewer is always a step removed from Amin not just due to the animation, but also his reluctance to tell his story without contradictions.
It all amounts to a film that heavily borrows from Ari Folman’s landmark animation-doc hybrid, “Waltz With Bashir.” The remnants of that film’s influences are all over “Flee,” which, and I’m in the minority here, doesn’t really feel as fresh or invigorating as Folman’s masterpiece.
Of course, critics are going to go right ahead and make parallels to the current global migrant crisis, not to mention the recent bungled Afghanistan withdrawal. Unfortunately, Rasmussen’s stylistic choices take away the power of Amin’s story. Its animation masks the rather pedantic way that Amin’s Story is being told.