Back to Where We Started
When I think of a refugee, I often think of someone escaping from a dangerous situation to a safer place where they could live their lives safely, and find opportunities that they couldn’t find before. However, the film Flee, directed by Poher R. Jonas, turned my perspective completely on its head. Throughout the film, we follow a man named Amin Nawabi, whose story humanizes the plight of refugees like no other. He escaped Afghanistan with his family as a child just as the Afghan War broke out. Like many Afghan refugees at the time, they escaped to the Soviet Union, where he and his brother were safe from being drafted into a war that tore down their hometown, but his family was not safe from the despair and corruption of the USSR. There, they lived in fear every day of being caught and sent back by the police. The corruption of the police leads to them harassing refugees, and stealing their money in exchange for letting them stay with illegal papers. This began their journey of saving up every penny to be taken to a safer place via human traffickers, a dangerous option, and yet, their only one. Nawabi eventually makes it to Denmark, where he grapples with keeping his story and sexual orientation a secret. The most impactful moment to me, however, was during his family’s first attempt at escaping Soviet Russia together.
While in the USSR, Nawabi’s mother was able to send his two sisters away with human traffickers, where they eventually made it to Sweden having barely survived. This foreshadows how dangerous future attempts to escape would become, and it is shown when Amin, his mother, and his brother all attempt to escape together. They end up treading through treacherous snowy weather in the middle of a forest on their way to a boat with a group of refugees being led by a trafficker. The trafficker was ruthless, threatening people who were too slow or falling behind, and forcing them all into the hull of a small ship. Once water began to leak in during a terrible storm, the refugees had no choice but to bail water out to prevent the boat from sinking. After the storm cleared, they encountered a Norwegian cruise ship passing by, and they began celebrating, calling out to the passengers on board. They believed that they had been saved, and as Nawabi points out, “It’s a fantastic opportunity! All of a sudden… everything we want to achieve is right there. You could almost reach out and touch it.” (Flee 50:51). Shortly after he says this, the loudspeakers on the Norwegian cruise ship tell the refugees that Estonian border police have been called, and they are being taken back. The cheering ends, fear freezes their bodies and despair fills their eyes, all as the people on the cruise ship take photos of them. This moment of the film caused a deep pit to form in my stomach, similar to how I experienced anxiety and fear. I feared for the refugees and what they were about to go through, which was inhumane and dark. Their lives were already filled with being homesick, depressing losses, and grains of hope falling through the cracks that were made with every failure they experienced whilst trying to escape. I wondered how and when Nawabi was going to make it to Sweden, even though his telling of the story makes it clear that he did at some point. It was even possible that he and his family would be sent back to Afghanistan, and how would they make it back then? Throughout the trip, his mother dreaded being on the ship, and couldn’t stand being on it. I wondered how she would recover from this traumatic experience, as well as the others she had already gone through. I wondered what might happen to all the refugees that were caught as well, and how they would survive. I realized that all these thoughts and questions were everything to the refugees themselves, who made it this far, only to find themselves getting sent back. In general, the moment moved me to feel worried for the refugees and made me realize that refugees have to go from place to place in fear of being thrown back to where they started.
Throughout the film, we first see Nawabi lie about his family being dead, before talking about his family more in depth. When his sisters escaped to Sweden, I was caught off guard by the fact they were alive, because I thought they were supposed to be dead, and the rest of his family would soon follow. When I learned that the reason why he says it is to protect his family and himself, to make sure he stays in Denmark, I found his circumstances to be further heartbreaking, because he had to keep a major part of his life a secret to make it out, and could not talk to anyone about the traumatic events he experienced. The animated film Flee has made the world and struggles of refugees into a visual story that cuts deep into the traumatic experiences and decisions refugees have to make.
Works Cited:
“Flee.” , directed by Poher R. Jonas. , produced by Charlotte de la Gournerie, et al. , Ro*Co Films, 2021. Alexander Street, https://video.alexanderstreet.com/watch/Flee.
I really love how you were able to tie it all together in the final parts of your response. I also love how you were able to talk about your opinion regarding Nawabis situations and how it truly is a heartbreaking experience. I would say that many others would agree with your idea as well as feel sympathy for Amin, especially since he had to keep those secrets for so long.
I strongly agree with your perspective on Flee. The humanization of the plight of refugees especially in the scene during which they try to escape the USSR via boat gives insight into their emotions and their loss of hope. It’s difficult to imagine the hardships they faced throughout their journey, but the constant fear of getting caught and the minimal hope portrayed by the film really does a great job of putting into perspective their extensive journey.