(LONG BEACH ISLAND, NJ) -- The Lighthouse International Film Society will screen the award winning film FLEE at The Long Beach Island Foundation of the Arts and Sciences on Sunday, February 20th at 7:00pm. FLEE is poised to make Oscar history with three category nominations - documentary, animated, and international feature.
FLEE tells the story of Amin Nawabi as he grapples with a painful secret he has kept hidden for 20 years, one that threatens to derail the life he has built for himself and his soon to be husband. Recounted mostly through animation to director Jonas Pohrer Rasmussen, he tells for the first time the story of his extraordinary journey as a child refugee from Afghanistan.
Tickets are $12.00 at the door and $10.00 online. Free for LIFS members. Masks are Required at LBIF. Tickets and LIFS Memberships are available for purchase online.
The director, Jonas Poher Ramussen, is a Danish/French film director born in 1981. He debuted in 2006 with the acclaimed TV documentary Something About Halfdan, followed by a series of radio documentaries from around the world. He graduated from the Danish film school Super16 in 2010. His feature film debut Searching for Bill, a mix of documentary and fiction, won him the Nordic Dox award at CPH:DOX, and the international competition prize at DocAviv. In November 2015 he premiered his latest documentary What He Did, which won the prestigious Fipresci (Int. Federation of Film Critics) at Thessaloniki Film Fest. 2016.
Jonas Poher Rasmussen stated in the film's media kit: "Growing up in a very liberal home, I was always taught to be respectful, open-minded, and curious about the people around me, despite their past, political beliefs, or whatever else they might have stood for. Meeting people whoever they are and wherever they are in life is one of my core approaches to directing my documentary films. My goal is to make honest and real connections in a trusting environment, since that will help me reach their most intimate stories. I try to understand their nuances and complexities, including the vulnerable or ugly sides, and even the most inhumane facets of their lives."
"In the process of telling these intimate stories, I always try to explore new ways and approaches to share my stories," continued Rasmussen. "I seek ways to twist the format of the film, so that it fits with the story being told. I have worked with theater reenactments and fictional/documentary hybrids. Now with FLEE, I’ve introduced animation to my repertoire. I aim to create a compelling and inviting narrative in order to give testimonies so generously shared with me by my subjects the platform they deserve."
"Coming from a Jewish family, the theme of flight and dislocation is especially important to me. My ancestors fled Russia in the early 20th century to escape persecution and pogroms. Like Amin, the protagonist of FLEE, they sailed across the Baltic to Denmark. This was where my grandmother was born, in a hotel close to the central train station in my current hometown of Copenhagen. Her family – my family – applied for asylum, but they were denied, so they were forced to move again, this time to Germany. As a primary school student in Berlin, my grandmother was forced to stand before her classmates with a yellow star displayed prominently on her chest. Soon, she had to flee again, this time to England. It happened almost a century ago, but the story of her forced displacement and dislocation still hangs over my family.
"I was 15, when Amin first showed up in my sleepy Danish hometown. He arrived from Afghanistan all by himself and lived in a foster home, right around the corner from where I lived. We met every morning at the bus stop, on our way to high school, and we slowly became close friends. That was 25 years ago. In all that time, he never told me about how or why he came to Denmark. In fact, he never told anyone.
"Since I was just a teenager then, I never really probed him about his past. It didn’t really concern me. I just liked having a gym buddy. I liked having someone around that I could talk to. Over the years, however, I started hearing whispers of some of what he’d been through... before he showed up at my bus stop.
"For at least half his life, Amin avoided telling anyone his story. Imagine how excited I was, when he finally agreed to open up to me. He was willing to tell me everything. How different our lives were … and how similar! We are about the same age, we both listened to the same music, watched the same movies, and enjoyed sports. He loved playing volleyball in Kabul, while I loved playing soccer in Denmark. But then his life took a drastic turn. He spent five years living on the run, before he finally arrived – all alone – in my town. "Making FLEE gave me new insights into the drastic consequences of fleeing home, especially as a child, like Amin … like my grandmother. I began to understand the difficulties that children like them face, when their past and present are so disconnected. I understood why they tended to look ahead to the future, while keeping a safe distance from the people around them. I understood what it’s like to have a deep secret that you cannot share with anyone, but which will always be a silent presence in that person’s relationships and in life in general.
"As for Amin, I realized that this feeling of displacement still was very present in him, even after all these years. I believe it is because he never had the chance to confront his past and share his story, the story of FLEE."
Lighthouse International Film Society would like to thank their sponsors-The Ocean County Cultural and Heritage Commission, Long Beach Island Foundation of the Arts and Sciences, Pangaea Naturals Health Food Market, and Country Kettle Chowda, who have made screening this film on Long Beach Island possible.
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