‘Flee’ Film Review: Afghan Refugee Shares His Journey in Empathetic Animated Doc

Watch Video: The Notorious BIG Saves 'A Lot of People's Lives But His' in Trailer for Netflix Doc“Biggie” also tells the classic story of an immigrant’s kid made good in the United States; Vonetta Wallace shares her experiences of moving from Jamaica to New York City in the hopes of finding opportunity, and of working multiple jobs so that she could send young Christopher to Catholic school.

The Dog Who Wouldn't Be Quiet is very much its own creature. In ways that can pull you in and also keep you at a distance, it has no use for movie conventions of plot and characterization as it traces turning points in its 30-something protagonist's life — a life shaped by ordinary strife and joy and, for a while, a strange planetary phenomenon.

Ed Meza @edmezavarThe Rotterdam Film Festival’s IFFR Pro Days and CineMart came to a close on Friday with awards for projects from Greece, China and Afghanistan, including the latest work from Kabul-based filmmaker Shahrbanoo Sadat.

Just as Waltz with Bashir did 13 years ago, director Jonas Poher Rasmussen robustly reaffirms in Flee that animation can be used not just for amusement but for any purpose, in this case to tell the harrowing story of what some refugees from Afghanistan went through in order to forge new lives in the West.

Director Rod Lurie, an Army veteran and West Point alum, drew upon his years of military experience while making “The Outpost,” a war film based on Jake Tapper’s book about the Battle of Kamdesh, during which a few dozen Americans were ambushed by hundreds of Taliban soldiers in Afghanistan.“I’m a military guy, I served a long time ago,” Lurie told TheWrap’s Steve Pond as part of TheWrap’s Screening Series.

Watch Video: How 'In the Same Breath' Director Got Multiple Camera Crews in Wuhan to Shoot COVID DocAs with previous efforts such as “One Child Nation” or “I Am Another You,” the director embeds her personal stakes as they relate to the subject matter. Rather than being an impartial observant, Wang shares her fears after traveling to her hometown with her family around the time Wuhan went under lockdown on January 23, 2020.

Angelique Jackson Participant has partnered with NEON on the North American distribution of Jonas Poher Rasmussen’s documentary “Flee” after its Sundance debut.The film, a largely animated documentary about the life of a gay Afghan refugee, earned the grand jury prize in the World Cinema Documentary Competition category on Tuesday night, just hours after the new partnership was announced.“We were awestruck by Jonas Poher Rasmussen’s beautiful and intimate Flee and are so proud to join with NEON

Also Read: 'My Entire High School Sinking Into the Sea' Review: Satirical Teenage Adventure, 'Poseidon'-Style“Cryptozoo” follows the globe-trotting adventures of Lauren Gray (voiced by Lake Bell). As a child growing up on an army base in Okinawa, Lauren was plagued by nightmares until a mythical creature — collectively categorized here as “cryptids” — called a Baku ate her dreams and gave her peace.

Also Read: 14 Buzziest Sundance Movies for Sale in 2021, From Questlove's 'Summer of Soul' to Rebecca Hall's 'Passing' (Photos)Liza’s premonition of doom, it turns out, isn’t just a bad feeling or a suicidal tendency; she’s not like Kate Lyn Sheil in the recent indie “She Dies Tomorrow,” with a seriously contagious sense of impending doom. No, in fact Liza is going to die tomorrow, and so is everybody else, because a meteor is going to destroy the planet in the wee hours.

One of the most exciting international discoveries of last year's Sundance festival was His House, which explored the cultural dislocation of the refugee experience through a genuinely nerve-rattling horror prism.

Ed Meza @edmezavarDanish-German company Adomeit Film is set to explore uncharted territory with what could be the world’s first romantic comedy set in Afghanistan.Shahrbanoo Sadat’s “Kabul Jan,” the third part in a planned pentalogy based on co-writer Anwar Hashimi’s autobiographical work, follows a young camera operator who falls in love with a married TV reporter twice her age.Set in the biggest private TV station in Kabul, the story explores the forbidden romance while also examining the

Also Read: 14 Buzziest Sundance Movies for Sale in 2021, From Questlove's 'Summer of Soul' to Rebecca Hall's 'Passing' (Photos)The film was one of the opening-night presentations at the virtual Sundance Film Festival on Thursday, occupying the same position as previous music-focused docs like “Twenty Feet From Stardom,” “Searching for Sugar Man,” “What Happened, Miss Simone?” and last year’s “Miss Americana.” No doubt it left some viewers wishing that it had been the Eccles Theatre moving to the

Peter Debruge Chief Film CriticAmin Nawabi is not the real name of the Afghan refugee introduced in the Sundance movie “Flee,” nor is that his real face, which has been distorted by animation to protect his identity. As “Flee” unfolds, you may also start to question whether the story Amin shares is even real, doubling back and contradicting itself as it does over the course of director Jonas Poher Rasmussen’s unconventional portrait.There’s a good reason for such subterfuge.

Amin Nawabi is an Afghan refugee living in Denmark. He has a successful career and a boyfriend.

Kourosh Ahari's debut feature proves an accomplished psychological chiller that impresses far beyond its historic status as a U.S. production featuring primarily Iranian or Iranian-American talent.

Guinness endurance record-holder Martin Parnell, who ran 250 marathons in 2010 for a charity, recalls the moment he decided to run alongside pioneering women in Afghanistan defying insults and threats to run secret marathons for freedom. It came in 2015 after Parnell suffered a life-threatening blood clot and facing dark despair one day read an article about Zainab, the first woman to run an official marathon in Afghanistan against local customs.

The psychological toll of investigative police work seeps into the bones of John Lee Hancock's gritty neo-noir The Little Things, which captures Los Angeles County's flat urban sprawl and snaking freeways to highly atmospheric effect.

Watch Video: Denzel Washington and Rami Malek Are Out to Catch Jared Leto in 'The Little Things' TrailerOne senses that Hancock (“Saving Mr. Banks,” “The Founder”) wants to bait and switch the audience with what at first seems like a straightforward policier but then pivots into a character study of Deke and Jim — respectively, an aging lawman who’s literally haunted by his mistakes and an ambitious young climber who may follow in Deke’s footsteps for better or for worse.

Just a few months ago, Juno Temple helped give the fledgling Apple TV+ service its first must-see: Ted Lasso, a practically perfect comedy series that radiated decency and hope in a world that...well, you were there. She’s very much on the other side of the coin in her reunion with the streaming service, playing a drug-addicted single mom so neglectful that abandoning her kid to the care of a just-released felon is actually a step in the right direction.