Unpopular take and also a moment of self-reflection for my apparent monstrosity. Flee is a tragic life story but not one told very well. Yeah, I know… how wrong a take can a guy have?

The documentary / animated film tells the story of an Afghani kid in the 80s whose family has to flee following the end of the Russia/Afghan war. They try for years to find a new home that doesn’t take advantage of them, having to overpay various human traffickers, deal with corruption, bureaucracy, and indifference.

The story is told as an animated interview with animated re-enactments and random cuts of real (but impersonal) documentary footage. This approach was done to protect various identities. But, as interesting as the story may be, this approach kept me at arm’s length. I’m not sure a live action documentary of the exact same content would have worked either. As a straight-forward doc or, better yet, a narrative film, I think I would have been more engrossed.

Which isn’t to say it’s bad, just that I was left a little cold by it where everyone else was able to find the humanity. It’s a human tale, for sure, but one that I was studying academically, not personally. This is surely my limitation.

Score: 78