By hearing a specific story and putting a name to the face of someone who has gone through something traumatic, we feel closer to that event and that person’s perspective of it. Ramussen’s choice to tell the story of human trafficking among Afghan refugees in the documentary Flee through Amin Nawabi helps the audience feel a connection to the event from the very beginning. This is because we were told the story through Nawabi’s eyes and his specific experience impacts the information that we receive. The animated style through which the story was portrayed also added a degree of detail that the old clips could not capture. It was through this that the audience could visualize Amin’s daily life- from watching TV with his family in Russia to simply finding a cat in the yard. Although some of the details conveyed in the documentary did not directly pertain to his escape from Afghanistan and Russia, they made the story far more personal to the audience, making it easier to feel moved by his experiences.
One scene toward the middle of the documentary that caught my eye was when Amin Nawabi began to recall the experience of attempting to traveling from Russia by boat. The animators used flashbacks from this period of his life to convey the story. This consisted of many shadows, mysterious figures, and dark colors to better represent the overall mood that comprised this event. These were all strategies to show that this was an incredibly uncertain time period filled with fear for his safety, family, and future. By tapping into the audience’s emotions through the use of skilled animation and personal anecdotes, the event felt much more humanized than it would have been had it been written plainly in the news.
Later on, once Amin has arrived, he has the means to explore himself to see what the future holds for him. In conjunction with this, the animation style felt more lively and subsequently portrayed a sense of hope, rather than a fear of the unknown. My view of how I saw Nawabi changed as his vision for himself also did. Learning to be comfortable with being gay and then growing into his new life after fleeing from home lifted many burdens that he has carried for a while. At the end, the sequence regarding Amin and his partner buying a peaceful house with a nice landscape represents the peace that finally ends the struggles he has endured for the majority of his life.
I like how you talked about the film being an animated one. Nowadays, animated films seem to capture the attention of its viewers, more so than other types of films. I agree when you said that the animated style helps capture details that other styles could not, making this film all the more worthwhile to watch.