where to flee

Yesterday afternoon, I had a half-day free time and went to the city to watch the movie "Flee". After watching this movie, I was so excited to tell a friend that I really wanted to write a movie-watching note. "Flee" is so good that I can't even write this note with the strength of my whole life.

This movie is my favorite category - stories of ordinary people, with a Rotten Tomatoes index of 98%, which shows that in the eyes of the audience, it is extraordinary. The film is a documentary made of animated narratives combined with contemporary newsreels. Yes, this is not an animated film with a virtual plot, but an animated documentary. Through the narration of an Afghan man, Amin, the film tells us how he went from being uneasy to calmly facing his true past buried deep in his heart. The story of saying goodbye to fleeing, whether it is physical or spiritual, accepting your current life, and finally settling down.

The director and Amin are high school classmates and friends, and the two have maintained a friendship for 25 years. The director admitted that he was curious about Amin's story since high school, but Amin always refused to share. It was not until the director decided that he did not need Amin to appear on the scene and switched to animation. At this time, Amin, who had a successful career and a stable partner, finally let go of his guard and told his own story, and this animated documentary was released. The director emphasized in several interviews that he did not want to make the film overly politicized, and just wanted to tell everyone that this is just the story of his good friend. Even though the background of the story itself is already at the level of a history textbook, and it also involves gay men from Islamic countries, the director did not use these eye-catching elements to highlight Amin's experience, but put the pen and ink into the reality that friends are powerless. All the struggles I've been through. On the contrary, after reading it, I thought about where Amin came from and where he finally fled, and was completely shocked.

First of all, I would like to praise the soundtrack of this documentary, which perfectly matches every scene, happy, dull, fearful, sad and angry. There are a few clips without narration that make me cry just listening to the soundtrack. The part with narration and the soundtrack are even more tear-jerking, anyway, I wet the mask from crying. Then the filmmakers' skill in handling the picture is also amazing. The scenery picture representing the happy plot is quite Miyazaki-style and very warm; the rest of the plot uses the animation style of the time when the story takes place, which makes people feel more real; and the emotions are the most intense. The picture of the scene is completely only black and white dynamic lines, the characters are blurred, and the expressions of the characters in the incident at that moment are extracted in the form of flash status, the attention is completely focused on the extreme emotions, and the accurate soundtrack is added. , the audience was instantly knocked down.

In his life, Amin was always running away, flying out of war-torn Afghanistan, escaping to Russia, which had just emerged from the disintegration of the Soviet Union, and was stranded in Estonia after trying to escape to Sweden, and then returning to Russia to be stranded until the end Finally escaped to Denmark. In the last escape, the smugglers forced Amin to declare that all his family members were dead in exchange for Denmark's shelter in order to receive the final payment. When Amin said "My family is dead and now I'm alone" in front of Danish immigration officials, he couldn't help crying, even he couldn't understand why he was so sad for a lie. Before fleeing to Denmark, the family's financial resources were only enough for Amin to go alone, and Amin was only a teenager at the time. He had to reluctantly bid farewell to his relatives, endure the fear along the way, and finally rely on lying in exchange for refugee status. It's not something a teenager can handle. And this lie has become Amin's biggest secret. At the beginning of the film, Amin also habitually declared that his family members were arrested according to the lie, and then slowly revealed the truth in the narrative. Except for his father, who was a political prisoner, who died in prison long before they fled Afghanistan, all his family members are still there, and they all successfully fled to various parts of Europe in the end.

Amin didn't exaggerate his thrilling and humiliating escape experience, and always used an indifferent tone to narrate it. Only when he mentioned the Russian police, he had a more intense tone. In Amin's eyes, the Russian police were like demons. When Amin's family was stranded in Moscow, prices were soaring and supplies were in short supply, and life was not easy. In addition, they did not have legal visas. The police not only harassed them, but also looted their money. What's more, Amin and his brother wanted to Save your life and watch the police rape the black-haired girl in the police car.

When a person is burdened with such a heavy past, it will inevitably affect his future life. When I was young, I kept fleeing and hiding, and had nowhere to go. When I arrived in Denmark, I still lived in uncertainty, for fear that one day I would be driven away. While Amin was so eager for stability, he was so afraid that it would not last long. So Amin has been in a self-protective posture, unwilling to open up to friends or even lovers. So much so that when her lover wanted to buy a house and settle down in the countryside, Amin was still in a dissociated state. Because he couldn't face his past, he went to the United States to continue his research and work alone, in order to escape this already stable relationship. Fortunately, in the end, he chose to trust the people around him, be honest about his past, stop running away, and return to his lover's side.

Although the film keeps talking about running away, the only thing Amin doesn't run away is realizing he's gay. When he was 5 or 6 years old, he realized that he likes boys. Based on the traditional concept of Islamic family, especially the eldest brother's uncomplaining dedication to his family, Amin has been unable to be honest with his family who love him. Until a certain time when he went to Sweden to reunite with his eldest brother and eldest sister, his brother kept asking him why he didn't find a girlfriend, and Amin, who was forced to do nothing, could only whisper "I don't like girls". My brother seriously asked Amin to go out, and took him into the car and left without saying a word. I immediately made up the story that my brother wanted to force Amin to find a girl to spend a good night. When I arrived at the door of a feasting Pub, my brother took out a handful of money and called Amin went in and played. When I was still thinking "surely", the camera revealed that it was a base. My eldest brother hugged my younger brother and told him "We always knew" and my tears burst again. It turned out that the eldest brother's questioning was just to let the younger brother tell the truth. Amin's family may have lived in Europe for a long time and have changed their minds; or they may feel that it is fortunate to survive, and they are unwilling to limit his life after seeing his younger brother working hard to study and live. Whatever the reason, this is definitely the biggest easter egg in the movie and Amin's life.

At the beginning of the film, the director asked, "What is the definition of home?" Amin replied, "Home is safe, you don't have to run around, it's not temporary." At the end of the film, the picture shows Amin's house, which is full of greenery and overlooks the river bank. In the garden, the camera slowly transformed from the animated picture to the exact same real picture, and a burst of sweetness infiltrated me. It's so good, Amin finally has the home he wants! The director probably also wanted to tell everyone through this set of shots that this is a true story.

The timeline of "Flee" began in 1989. Many unforgettable events happened in that year, and the world has never stopped chaotic since then. Countless people who were forcibly displaced had the only wish in their hearts to "survive first". Only when you come down will you have a chance to find a place to live.