Flee - 3 nominations

 

Best Documentary Feature Jonas Poher Rasmussen Monica Hellstrøm Signe Byrge Sørensen Charlotte de La Gournerie

Best Animated Feature Film Jonas Poher Rasmussen Monica Hellstrøm Signe Byrge Sørensen Charlotte de La Gournerie

Best International Feature Film Denmark

Flee is a powerful film telling the story of Amin (not his real name) as his family lives through a refugee crisis.  The family is fleeing Afghanistan and lands in Russia where their travel visas run out, and this puts them under a constant threat of deportation back to Afghanistan, where they will surely be killed.  Amin's mother is desperate to protect him from being sent back to Afghanistan, so she does everything she can to get him out of Russia and to Denmark where they have a relative.  The harrowing tale is truly the story of every refugee, their precarious lives, the tremendous risks they take, and the leaps of faith they must endure to attempt a better, safer life.  

This is the first time that an animated feature has also been nominated for Best Documentary and Best International Feature.  This one is just that good.  The most important thing that I hope this film will accomplish will be to build a sense of compassion for refugees among those who by happenstance were born in first world countries.  It is very easy to condemn and despise people from another country when you don't know their names and you don't know their stories.  It is much harder to act as Pharoah and harden one's heart when you realize that all mothers everywhere just want their children to grow up safely, no matter when they were born.