FLEE: Afghan Film, Cuisine & Discussion

About The Film:

FLEE (2021). Filmmaker Jonas Poher Rasmussen tells a poignant story of belonging and the search for identity. Amin’s life has been defined by his past and a secret he’s kept for over 20 years. Forced to leave his home country of Afghanistan as a young child with his mother and siblings, Amin now grapples with how his past will affect his future in Denmark and the life he is building with his soon-to-be husband. Told brilliantly through the use of animation to protect his identity, Amin looks back over his life, opening up for the first time about his past, his trauma, the truth about his family, and his acceptance of his own sexuality. The critically-acclaimed animated documentary won the Grand Jury Prize at the Sundance Film Festival in 2021, and made history by becoming the first film ever to score a trifecta of Oscar nominations in the categories of Best Animated Feature, Best Documentary Feature and Best International Feature Film. Participants of the post-film discussion panel will be announced soon! 

TRAILER: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WzUVeuX1u04

Curator Bio:

Abdullah was born in Panjshir, Afghanistan, migrated to Pakistan and grew up there, where he studied painting, traditional calligraphy, Persian Miniatures, learned and taught English as a second language and graduated from high school. He moved back to Kabul Afghanistan, completed his bachelor degree in computer science as well as worked as an IT Trainer for three years. He also painted wall murals with themes of social transformation and peace building with the artist collective, Artlords as a part-time profession.  When the Taliban took over the control of Kabul, he had to flee and found himself in Brattleboro, Vermont. He’s now rebuilding his life and finding new ways to make cross cultural collaborative murals with different regional artists using different mediums. He is also producing individual personal artwork using oil, acrylic and other mediums using different genres.

Curator's Statement:

"Flee is a coming of age adult documentary that narrates the story about an Afghan Queer guy who flees from Kabul Afghanistan with his family after the withdrawal & fall of Soviet Union and the rise of Mujahideen in 1990, where they end up with miserable and terrifying hardship of immigration towards Europe.

Flee is the story of then that resonates with now.

The documentary fairly & equally depicts the situation of millions of Afghans who left ( are still leaving and fleeing)  their families and homes to seek refuge for the sake of security and peace.

They say history repeats and the modern history of Afghanistan proofed it, however what left for Afghanistan, a devastating, vandalized, vulgarized and a total disaster government that made innocent civilians killed, abducted, persecuted, tortured to the death, starve for basic needs of life and go exile in which women, children and the Queer community suffered the most.

It tells how an Afghan Queer guy finds about himself, how his family supported him and how he ended up living his life with a man.

The reason why we selected this movie is to show how and what life looks like to be a queer in Afghanistan from very childhood that resonates with other thousands of LGBTQI+ people from Afghanistan who sought refuge to different parts of the world after the Fall of Kabul, August 2021." 

*Featured Afghan Cuisine Created by The Artlords:

Qawbli Palaw 

Served with Traditional Afghan Salad

*This will be a tasting sample to get acquainted with flavors featured in popular Afghan cuisine, and will not be a full dinner. Please register in advance so we can best prepare enough to serve everyone, thank you!

Established in 2014, ArtLords is a grassroots movement of artists and volunteers motivated by the desire to pave the way for social transformation and behavioral change through employing the soft power of art and culture as a non-intrusive approach. Based in Kabul, Afghanistan, they have painted more than 2,100 murals and gained international recognition, including from the United Nations. Recently, a group of Afghani refugees participating in the ArtLords movement, Negina, Abdullah, Meetra, Zuhra, and Marwa, resettled in here in Brattleboro (they use their first names in the press for legal protections). This group of exceptional artists are currently bringing their talent and expertise to the High Street Mural project transforming a dilapidated wall downtown in collaboration with local artists. All donations for this event will go directly to The Artlords.