Flee [Hulu]

 

This was cinema. It was no wonder that Flee became the first film to get simultaneously nominated for Best International Feature Film, Best Documentary Feature and Best Animated Feature.

The animation employed here was a tool to convey a harrowing, hearbreaking and poignantly timely story of escape and freedom. Animation allowed the story to be told but also allowed the film makers to hide Amin Nawabi's true identity - for reasons made clear in the documentary - and to tell an unrestricted and unflinching story. The animation also helped to recreate moments from his past and his memories, but these scenes were never indulgent nor exploitive. Just like a documentary, they were meant to convey and express. 

Flee was not only a story about Nawabi's flight away from politics, war, oppression, intolerance, bigotry, but also from the binds within himself. The guilt of escaping; the guilt of being alive; the guilt of being "different".  This was a documentarial masterclass in empathy. Nawabi's journey of self-discovery and self-acceptance also became our journey of reflection and learning. We are there with him through his childhood in Kabul, through the harrowing months in Moscow, through the arduous and terrifying escapes - yes, plural - to get asylum. 

And it was a brilliant choice to juxtapose the past with the present, which allowed us to see how much he has grown but yet had not. His future has not been set but we - like him - are trepidatious about how it will be. Will he give himself the chance to love, to settle, to be free? Or will he always be trapped by the fear?

Those final few moments of the film were brilliant. They brought tears, laughter, joy and - most importantly - hope. There is not a more timely film right now about our current world's situation. 

Peace.