Why ‘Flee’ Is the One Oscar Nominee You Need to Watch Before Sunday
The Oscars finally arrive this Sunday, leaving viewers at home racing to make sure they have seen all of the top-contending films like The Power of the Dog, CODA, and Drive My Car. But for those wishing to catch up to something special beyond the biggest titles, this year’s Oscar nominations still leave treasures undiscovered by wide audiences. Right at the top of the heap is a little animated (and history-making) documentary from Denmark with a massive heart named Flee.
Flee is already an Oscar record-setter, becoming the first film to be nominated for Best Animated Feature, Best Documentary Feature, and Best International Feature. That alone should grab your attention—in the Academy’s long history of feats and accomplishments, one film being nominated in categories so seemingly wide-ranging has never happened before—but what makes Flee such essential viewing is the testimonial power of the refugee experience it centers on.
The film tells the true story of Amin, an academic refugee in Denmark who recounts his experiences escaping the Taliban in childhood to the filmmaker Jonas Poher Rasmussen, a friend from high school. Amin’s recounting is remarkably candid, detailing how his family first fled Afghanistan for a hostile Russia and the cruelties they endured to arrive in Europe, separated from one another but safe.