no change in use egress or occupancy, Alteration type 2 - gen. constr. Animation can add visuals to enhance the tone and meaning of the storytelling. He says the film has given him a sense of freedom. captainformDomReady(function() { }); I feel that the act of telling a story itself is a hopeful act. (Najibullah was assassinated in 1996.). Flee takes the true-life refugee story of Afghan Amin Nawabi, now a Princeton-university academic, and submits it to techniques of editorializing persuasion Thank you to Amin for his bravery in sharing his extraordinary journey and giving us the privilege to share it. The result is a stripped-down score relying mostly on stringed instruments violin, cello, guitar with the occasional muted vocal or source music. Goes Out newsletter, with the week's best events, to help you explore and experience our city. The documentarys exploration of Nawabis sexuality is particularly illuminating. There have been many documentaries and news reports about the devastating traumas experienced by Afghan refugees and other people affected by war and political unrest in Afghanistan. And on top of that, its so rare for a film to be so creatively innovative, he said. } Amin's character in the animated documentary Flee. ", "I wanted to tell that story also to the entire world that there is more into this concept of being a refugee. }); Many of the voice actors in the cast are listed as Anonymous in the end credits. This search for acceptance sets Rasmussens interpretation of Nawabis take apart from the rest. 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. hide caption. Amin recalled that after he was resettled in Denmark, he told adults he wanted to take a pill to cure himself of being gay. Flee cost 3.5 million euros ($4 million), making it, says Hellstrm, a high-budget documentary film but a super-low-budget animation film., Notes Ladekjaer, There is a technique where you take the hand-drawn frames and get a computer to do the transitions, so you have a smooth movement, but it leaves an uncanny feel, a digital handprint, and just removes a bit of that empathy for the character., There are elements of Amins story that he struggles to remember or that he only remembers in fragments, and where theres ambiguity, it was important that the images are honest about that. }); He didnt want to be identified by the audience, to have people approaching him on the streets in Copenhagen asking him to retell his trauma. They remained friends into adulthood, as Amin became an academic and Jonas pursued a career in radio. Flee also is a contender for a best picture nomination, which, for a documentary, would be an Oscar first. At times, the interview setting is recreated, as Amin is shown being so overwhelmed when telling his story, he has to lie down on a carpet at some point, just like a therapy patient lying down on a couch during a therapy session. if ('' == 'left') }); It is wonderful that Amins story has touched so many people, and we hope it will continue to touch the hearts of audiences around the world. } Ayen Deng Bior adapted it for web. Get our L.A. The filmmaker sees a well-adjusted adult an accomplished academic in a loving relationship, looking to settle down once and for all albeit one with secrets, whereas we see a stranger. Amin Nawabi is not the real name of the Afghan refugee introduced in the Sundance movie Flee, nor is that his real face, which has been distorted by animation to protect his identity. Its message aligned with the mission of his company Left Handed Films. elementType: "script", He describes being the youngest child in his family and being raised by a loving and attentive mother. And I, of course, respected that.. hire through BuildZoom's free bidding system A contender in three categories documentary, animation and international feature Jonas Poher Rasmussens moving account of a gay mans journey from war-torn Afghanistan to Denmark could make Oscar history. contact us And it all started with a voice. We worked a lot on moving between archival footage and the animation so it would feel seamless, as if they belong to the same world., But when the first drafts of Amin came in, Rasmussen says, they were a little too cartoony, with big eyes, like in Disney films and everything looking a little too smooth, too nice. var popupTrigger = jQuery("#captainformForm772606EmbedPopup63ffe3583da98"); The film is also executive produced by Emmy-nominated actor Nikolaj Coster-Waldau (Game of Thrones) and 2021 Oscar nominee Riz Ahmed (The Sound of Metal). The human face is the best lie detector we have, but in Flee, we dont even have that to go by. He was killed because he was considered to be a threat to the Communist government, according to Akhtars family was able to visit him in jail. captainformDomReady(function() { Flee is less about the exploration of truth than it is about persistence. Amins story becomes more fragmented and uncertain, his memories obscured by trauma a sister kidnapped, his father, mother and brother killed and repression. Nawabi and Kasper were also looking for a new place to live in Copenhagen. Sometimes, as in the films What is home? opening sequence, the sources are sewn together from a combination of folk and classical styles. By subscribing, I agree to the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. You end up getting really obsessive, looking for weird things like how high was the curb on the streets, what sort of trees were there, what was the light like at that time of year, she says. The animation for the Amin interview sequences is slightly choppy, with jump cuts and Amins voice not always perfectly lip-synced. Nawabi, however, is riddled with distrust. The film Flee has already made Oscars history: it's the first to be nominated for best documentary, animated feature and international film. } if(typeof cfJsHost != 'undefined'){ Any person or business involved in a home improvement project more than $200 must get a license from the Department of Consumer Affairs to operate legally in New York. These kinds of expressive sequences are something we couldnt have done without animation.. Alteration type 2 - gen. constr. Nawabi seems to have it all. It had previously nabbed BAFTA, IDA, Spirit and Annie Awards nominations and wins from New York and L.A. critics groups this awards season. ("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)}; Several years ago, Amin Nawabi sat for a series of interviews with friend and filmmaker Jonas Poher Rasmussen with a caveat: In telling his story, his identity would Part of his journey has been one of self-acceptance. 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. Most money for animation in Europe is for kids animation, says de La Gournerie. clearInterval(captainForm772606PreloadInterval63ffe3583d0a3); Culture Mix Survey append_element({ The login page will open in a new tab. if (document.getElementById('captainform_js_global_vars') == null) { setTimeout(function () { For Flee, Jansen and Rasmussen combined the two approaches. That would give us a lot of material for the animators to animate He would see everything in front of his eyes and his memories would start to kind of come back. One of his earliest celebrity crushes was actor Jean-Claude Van Damme. 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. 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. Rendering interviews and memories in 2-D color and abstract animated sequences, the format also affords anonymity to Nawabi, who is credited as co-writer and appears using a pseudonym. The animated documentary Flee, which delves deep into Nawabis personal life story, his Will the luck of the Irish affect the Oscars? Nikolaj was a bit easier. 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. Helmersson too started with Amins voice. Since its release the film has only grown in relevance to current events and how refugee experiences are humanized, or not, in media narratives. to update company info and see who's viewing your profile. Every frame of Flees animated sequences was hand-drawn drawn electronically on a computer but still drawn by hand, says Ladekjaer by Flees graphic artist team. No documentary film to date has been nominated for best picture at the Oscars. Amin Nawabi is an Afghan refugee living in Denmark. }, 10); Nawabi is carrying a little less around. "The film is presented in the form of an animated documentary; animated scenes depict Amin's past and present, interspersed with archival footage." append_element({ var captainformDomReady = captainformDomReady || function(e){var t=!1,n=function(){document.addEventListener? It was very important that content and form were working together.. This is the first time, Amin says, he has spoken about this to anyone. popupTrigger.click(function(){ In delving immediately into Amins first memories, we are constructing an image according to what he chooses to share. captainformThemeStyle['772606'] = ''; Most of the people didnt make it out alive from their imprisonment. Subscribe to Deadline Breaking News Alerts and keep your inbox happy. Amin is a pseudonym. A gay Afghan refugee confronts his traumatic past and finds healing in the animated documentary Flee, Denmarks official Oscars entry. type: "text/javascript", And this is where Flee excels: all eyes and ears rest not on the film, but on Amin Nawabi. Theres a good reason for such subterfuge. Flee (directed by Jonas Poher Rasmussen) uses a real-life audio interview of a Syrian refugee named Amin Nawabi (which is an alias) telling his life story, and the movie recreates what he says through animation. And the sharing of your experience is a hopeful act because youre putting it out there in the hope that people will connect to it.. [Amin] is very charming in real life. I grew up in this very small rural town, a village basically, in Denmark, like 500 people in it. On Tuesday morning, Ahmed additionally earned his second career Oscar nomination for the live-action short film The Long Goodbye, which he stars in and co-wrote with director and co-nominee Aneil Karia. clearInterval(captainForm772606PreloadInterval63ffe3583da98); captainformDomReady(function() { Because make no mistake: The interview does start to be like a therapy session, with a lot of raw emotions and excruciating memories. Contact Us Rasmussen would also become one of the few people Nawabi would trust. window.addEventListener('resize', function(){ Out of ten entries, three this year in the World Cinema: Documentary section concerned the plight of refugees. This site is protected by reCAPTCHA Enterprise and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply. if(typeof cfJsHost != 'undefined'){ Even as Rasmussen, whose previous documentaries include Searching for Bill (2012) and What He Did (2015), expanded the project, developing it as a feature documentary, he stayed fairly conventional, shooting his interviews with Amin and doing standard doc coverage: Amin driving a car, Amin in the kitchen with Kaspar, Amin arriving home at the Copenhagen airport from a trip to New York. The fragmentation of Amins memories is conveyed by this fragmentation of the animation, says producer Signe Byrge. He was alone, and was There are human beings behind this concept and they are not much different than everyone else.". For example, when his sisters are hiding in a container [on a ship] going to Sweden, he wasnt there. We always kept in touch, we spent almost every New Years together for many, many years, went on holidays together, says Rasmussen. 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