We start this week with a Danish masterpiece. Where goes Flee about?
†Flee, by the until recently unknown filmmaker Jonas Poher Rasmussen, tells the story of Afghan refugee Amin, who ended up in the class of a young Rasmussen. Amin immediately caught his eye: he was just about the only non-Dane in the community and dressed cool and striking. The two have now both grown up and remained friends, yet Amin remained a mystery to the filmmaker: how did he end up in Denmark?
All his life Amin did not dare to deviate from the story he told the police as a child on the advice of the people smugglers when he arrived in Denmark, for fear of legal consequences. After a long hesitation he dared in Flee to tell his story. Rasmussen has captured that story powerfully in a film mainly composed of animation, for which he drew inspiration from Ari Folmans Waltz with Bashir† While Amin shares his experiences in detail, in a kind of therapeutic interview session, the animations bring his story to life. Viewers get close, but Amin – who does not want to be known – remains somewhat anonymous in this way.
†Flee is not only a film about a refugee, but above all shows how Amin has never been able to be himself completely, ever since he had to hide as a child in Afghanistan that he liked boys. The impact of a hidden life comes across very strongly, without being sentimental. Flee has been nominated for three Oscar categories: best documentary, best animation and best international film, which is unique. And that after Denmark also won an Oscar last year with Busy, by Thomas Vinterberg. As a Dutch film industry, you can look at that with some jealousy: how do the Scandinavians do that?’
Then you hardly saw it after telling Memoriesstarring Tilda Swinton.
‘Yes, as colleague Kevin Toma once wrote: Apichatpong Weerasethakul’s films are ‘exercises in waking dreams’, in which dream and reality merge. Humans can become animals, and vice versa. And nature always plays an important role.
‘The idea for Memories was caused by a strange condition of the Thai Weerasethakul: the exploding head syndrome. In addition, as actress Tilda Swinton puts it in the film, it is as if you are hearing a concrete ball fall into a metal pit surrounded by seawater – deep thumps that seem to come from the interior of the earth. Her character Jessica, an expat in Colombia, wants to know: am I going crazy? And what is the meaning of those explosions?
‘What is certain: with Weerasethakul there is never a ready-made answer, his films bend everyday logic. The best advice to the viewer: immerse yourself in this film and watch it towards the end of the evening, Weerasethakul’s films can sometimes be a bit more enchanting if you are a little tired yourself. And go see the film in the cinema, without interruptions.’
Finally, one last recommendation?
‘Let’s get the balance too The Batman just mention. As Pauline Kleijer started her review this week: ‘Batman, again.’ Those superhero movies are succeeding each other at an increasing pace. You can sigh a little every now and then, yet this new one Batman, with Robert Pattinson, a breath of fresh air after the previous films with that stiff Batman interpreter Ben Affleck. Now we see a somewhat younger and remarkably vulnerable Batman, who somewhat like the bat man in Christopher Nolan’s trilogy struggles with his superhero role in the world. The film is quite dark, and I like that.’