‘Flee’ Director Jonas Poher Rasmussen on animating memory

In this VIFF podcast episode, we’re featuring a special talk from the 2021 Vancouver International Film Festival with Jonas Poher Rasmussen, the writer & director behind the Sundance Grand Jury Prize-winning film, Flee.

Blurring the line between documentary and narrative filmmaking styles, Flee tells the personal story of pseudonymous Amin Nawabi (a longtime friend of Rasmussen’s) and his harrowing journey as a child refugee from Afghanistan.

Using a blend of animation and archival footage as both an aesthetic choice and an ethical necessity (to hide Amin’s true identity), the film is an illuminating and heartrending true story about the importance of personal freedom in all its meanings.

Speaking to Brishkay Ahmed, writer/director of In the Rumbling Belly of Motherland, Rasmussen discusses how he employed a technique he learned when working in radio to elicit descriptive memories from Amin, his unique editing process and how Riz Ahmed came on board as a co–executive producer.

This conversation was recorded on October 6, 2021.

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