#Jonas Poher Rasmussen

[gregor-samsung]

Flugt [Flee] (Jonas Poher Rasmussen - 2021)

[ozdeg]

[nonkul]

Hi user nanaphat! Hope you’re doing well!

Here’s a list of animated films that you might like :) (Nothing can compete with The Grave of the Fireflies though)

- The Summit of the Gods dir. Patrick Imbert

- Tales of Earthsea dir. Goro Miyazaki

- The Swallows of Kabul dir. by Zabou Breitman and Eléa Gobé Mévellec

- Persepolis dir. Vincent Paronnaud and Marjane Satrapi

- Flee dir. Jonas Poher Rasmussen

- Colorful dir. Keiichi Hara

My favourite from this list is The Summit of the Gods. I adore Jiro Taniguchi’s work and the film beautifully adapted his art style. Nothing can top the sheer beauty of his words and drawings and yet I feel like this film succeeded in encapsulating the essence of his work.

thank you so much for this high-quality list omg! i will slowly work through all of them and who knows!!! i might liveblog if i remember to!

the funny thing is that i actually read the original manga version of the summit of the gods and i really liked it. (our tastes match yay!!) so i think i'll put that at the bottom of my watch list for now, since i still remember how that plot went. but i have no doubt the film was the perfect adaptation for it hehe

[fukublrblog]

Flee: The Story of a Man Who Has Survived a Ruthless World

Director: Jonas Poher Rasmussen

Release Date: January 28, 2021

★★★☆☆

"Flee" is an animated film based on the true story of Amin, an Afghan man who fled Afghanistan in the 1990s. The film is a documentary-style animation that consists of his accounts. In the animation, the director interviews him, and he reveals his painful secrets that he has never told anyone.

One of the most memorable scenes is when he was an illegal immigrant in Russia. With the help of a smuggler, he tries to escape from Russia to Sweden in a small boat, but the boat's engine breaks down on the way. When he and other refugees are at a loss, all of a sudden, a large cruise ship from somewhere in the West appears. The refugees ask for help, but the passengers on the cruise ship just stare, taking pictures of them as if they have seen something unusual.

The whole scene struck me because it mirrors the real world. Typical civilians, people who abide by the rules of society, do not always help you when you are in a socially vulnerable position. They offer help when it is legally justified. People on the dark side of the world may help you, but only if you have money. How can we possibly live in such a harsh world if we were in his shoes?

[unblogparaloschicos]

Cine: Flugt/Flee (2021)

¿Cómo contar una historia como la de Amin Nawabi? ¿Cómo narrar lo brutal de una experiencia en la que una vida cotidiana pacífica se convierte en un sueño tan peligroso como imposible? ¿Cómo sobrevivir a la tragedia, la corrupción, el terror, la infamia y, además, tener que esconder no ya la propia sexualidad sino toda una vida?

Interrogado sobre ella por su amigo Jonas Poher Rasmussen, Amin decide contarla, interpelado por un pasado de una dureza extraordinaria. Nacido en Afganistán, las circunstancias de su vida en Kabul junto a su madre Tahera, sus hermanas Fahima y Sabia y su hermano mayor Saif (su padre ha sido arrestado y posteriormente desaparecido) cambian drásticamente cuando estalla la Guerra de Afganistán (1978-1989), por lo que deben escapar del acoso muyaidín. La idea es conectarse con Abbas, hermano mayor de Amin, que vive en Suecia. Ese era el destino principal, pero el grupo encalla en Rusia, adonde conocen una vida de discriminación, corrupción policial y pobreza.

Así, las cosas, la idea de escapar de tal infierno implica valerse de traficantes de personas, por lo que el peligro de morir en el intento se vuelve una posibilidad real. El camino de Amin y de su familia hacia el presente más pacífico que hoy disfrutan, en el que el protagonista está a punto de casarse con su novio Kasper, verá circunstancias aún más complejas y dramáticas.

¿Cómo se narra una vida como la de Amin Nawabi, en la que las experiencias dolorosas alcanzan grados de trauma? Rasmussen incluye una animación sencilla y atrapante en la que un grupo de actores representan los hechos de la historia de la familia de Amin, imagenes de eventos reales e incluso grabaciones con el protagonista de esta vida tan cruel como extraordinaria. El resultado es una película, que contó con la producción ejecutiva de los actores Riz Ahmed y Nikolaj Coster-Waldau, que conmueve por su descarnado retrato de una familia que, en busca de la libertad, conoce la opresión, la represión, la corrupción y la esperanza. Un relato conmovedor que, con absoluta justicia, ha cosechado 98 premios y 152 nominaciones, entre las que destacan Mejor Película Animada, Mejor Largometraje Documental y Mejor Película Internacional.

[inapat17]

Animation shows: The art of drawing society (3/4)

Flee

Cartoons are a colorful medium that creators like to use to depict their vision of our modern world. Therefore, this series of articles will be dedicated to animated TV, internet shows and movies of this last year which humorously describes our contemporary society. The animated documentary “Flee” will be our guide for today as we examine the art of cartooning real-life events.

Animation and cartooning can be used in all cinema genres, even the most realistic ones. Flee is an animated documentary directed by Jona Poher-Rasmussen. It was first screened in 2021 during the Sundance Festival. Then, the film reached a much larger audience when it was broadcast on Arte in August 2022. It took the public one and a half hours to discover Amin’s tragic life story, it took 20 years for Jonas Poher Rasmussen to get his friend to tell the painful truth about his past. Until now Amin was telling the story that the smuggler taught him for fear of losing his refugee status. He told his best friend Jonas and his partner Kasper that his entire family had died, and that he had made the journey from Afghanistan to Denmark all by himself. In reality, his family is still alive and scattered across Europe, but Amin's story is not any less tragic.

Amin, lying on a colorful carpet, remembers his carefree childhood in Kabul. He was dancing in the street with his walkman on the hit song “Take on me” by the band A-ha. The young boy already has his first crush: the very popular Jean-Claude Van Damme. These pleasant memories are followed by one of his dad’s arrests by mujahedin. War is about to break out and Amin's brother hides to escape conscription. The family first fled to Russia. Illegal immigrants are being roughed up by the police. Amin’s sisters are the first to escape the situation, they cross Europe in horrible conditions nearly suffocating alongside other immigrants in a container ship. Although they survived, they were left scarred for life. Amin, his brother and mother leave on a miniscule boat navigating on the Baltic Sea. After nearly drowning, they come across a cruise ship. Whereas the tourist takes pictures of the tragic spectacle, the ship crew tells them that the Estonian police are on their way to send them back to Russia. Due to the unsustainable situation in Moscow, the family decides to send Amin to Sweden alone. The smuggler, or human trafficker as Amin prefers to call them, sends Amin to Denmark instead of Sweden. Amin lies to the Danish authorities to gain refugee status and claims to be the sole survivor of his family. It was in high school that he met Jonas, the director of the movie. Amin made a lot of sacrifices in order to get a good job and support his family, now that he is on the verge of marrying his boyfriend Kasper he tells us his story.

The documentary mixes animated sequences with archive footage. Animation serves first and foremost to preserve the characters. Indeed, Amin confides to his friends his most intimate story, he recounts his first loves, his fears, and the distrust he has developed towards others who cannot fully understand how his experiences have shaped him. Animation allows the man to remain anonymous. Although his story is very personal, the writing of the film and dialogues, as well as the animation make the story almost universal as the jury of the 2021 Sundance Festival said :“This film blends the personal and the universal. It's a remarkable blend of genres that manages to raise awareness of a global issue while following an intimate narrative.”

Animation is also a way of showing personal memories in the absence of real images. Historical events are illustrated by real archival footage. The memories of Amin's daily life are portrayed in classic, colorful animation. The memories that are too hard and cruel are drawn in charcoal with blurred lines and a shaky animation. Thanks to this combination, the audience can fully immerse themselves in these memories. They are heartbreaking but conveyed by Amin with great tenderness. 

The film tells the story of a man who has gone through hell to build a stable life. It's also the story of a young man experiencing his first love stories. And it's the story of a long friendship between Amin and Jonas. They have a beautiful trusting relationship that allows them to move forward in their personal and professional lives. Since the Taliban invasion in 2021, the rights of men and women in Afghanistan have crumbled. This film, resounding at the time, has lost none of its splendor. It allows the public to have a better understanding of what people fleeing from conflicts have to go through in order to be accepted and live a happy life. 

[cinematicjourney]

Flee (2021) | dir. Jonas Poher Rasmussen

[albertserra]

Flee / Flugt (2021) dir. Jonas Poher Rasmussen

[falsenote]

Flee (2021)

[scenesandscreens]

Flee (2021)

Director - Jonas Poher Rasmussen, Cinematography - Mauricio Gonzalez-Aranda

"I have no one. I'm all alone."

[gregor-samsung]

Flugt [Flee] (Jonas Poher Rasmussen - 2021)

[guy60660]

Flee/Flugt | Jonas Poher Rasmussen

[naslostcontrol]

An animated documentary telling the true story about a man's need to confront his past in order to truly have a future.

FLEE (2021), dir. Jonas Poher Rasmussen

[moviemosaics]

Flee

directed by Jonas Poher Rasmussen, 2021

[rookie-critic]

Rookie-Critic's Top 20 Films of 2021: #5 - Flee (dir. Jonas Poher Rasmussen)

I don't normally watch many documentaries, and when I do they generally don't catch me in the same way that a lot of fictional films do, so going into Flee I wasn't sure what to expect. What I got was the story of an incredibly brave individual that, as a child, had to endure things that no child should have to endure, and surely not for as long as he had to. Told through an animated lens so as to protect the identity of the protagonist, who we only get to know as Amin Nawabi, Flee shows us what it's like to grow up knowing mostly uncertainty and fear. Framed as a series of interviews with Amin as an adult man in Denmark mere months away from marriage, Amin spends most of his childhood having to walk a tightrope alongside his family as they try to make it out of Afghanistan and into literally any other country where he thinks they'll be safe. Not only that, but Amin also has to navigate his growing awareness of his sexuality and how being gay affects his surroundings and possible standing within the only support system he thinks he'll ever have. It's a very disquieting film, because while Amin's story is ultimately one of relief, self-acceptance, and what things look like when someone actually gets out of a dangerous situation like that, it shines a light on the fact that Amin's story is just one of many, and so many of those other stories don't end as happily as his. Many people will see this as a heartwarming story, and not to take away from Amin's success, but I left the theater with angry tears in my eyes, crying for all of the refugees who didn't make it.

Score: 10/10

Currently available for streaming on Hulu.

[bonniehooper]

Top Picks of 2022

My Top 20 Favorite Movies - #17: Flee

Running Time: 90 minutes

Released: December 3rd, 2021

Watched It: February 2022