Festivals - Sundance Film Festival 2021 : Flee will have its world premiere

By Mulder, 26 december 2020

An Afghan refugee agrees to tell a remarkable personal narrative of persecution and escape on the condition that his identity not be revealed. As a means of fulfilling that wish, his filmmaker friend uses striking animation to not only protect this young man but also enhance his tale, bending time and memory to recount a visceral, poetic, and death-defying journey dictated by deception, loneliness, and a relentless will to survive.

The result is Flee, a film unbound by documentary constraints and swept up in an astonishing array of archive footage, ’80s pop music, and hand-drawn craft that brings audiences directly into the experience of a teen fleeing multiple countries—and the psychological impact on how he loves, trusts, and understands his burgeoning identity. Jonas Poher Rasmussen’s film is a triumph of storytelling and filmmaking ingenuity, but its greatest asset is the empathy and trust Rasmussen forms with the film’s protagonist, whose clarity and vulnerability grant us access to a unique refugee tale.

Synopsis :
Flee tells the extraordinary true story of a man, Amin, on the verge of marriage which compels him to reveal his hidden past for the first time.

Flee (Denmark/France/Sweden/Norway)
Written and directed by Jonas Poher Rasmussen
Animation Director : Kenneth Ladekjær
Produced by Monica Hellström, Signe Byrge Sørensen
Co-Producers : Jean-François Le Corre, Mathieu Courtois, Charlotte Most, Maria Ekerhovd
Animation Producer : Charlotte De La Gournerie
Executive Producer : Philippa Kowarsky, Danny Gabai, Natalie Farrey, Jannat Gargi
Music by Uno Helmersson
Sound Designer : Edward Björner
Sound Mixer : Tormod Ringers
Edited by Janus Billeskov Jansen
Distributed by Cinephil
Release date : January 29, 2021 (Sundance)
Running time : 90 minutes

Premiere : jan. 29 - 4:00am // Second screening : jan. 30 - 4:00pm (local time)

(Source : press release)