The entire screen is dominated by a male face. “What does the word ‘home’ mean to you?” the voice asks. A kind face with a melancholy look replies: “Home is where you feel safe. Where you know you can stay and you don’t have to leave.”

The psychological portrait that makes up the “Flight” of the Dane Jonas Poer Rasmussen is already drawn from the first scene and is an interview / confession given to the director by his childhood friend, a refugee from Afghanistan in Denmark in the early 90s.

Documentary, graphic novel, tale of loss of innocence, Oscar-nominated Runaway is first and foremost the story of a child driven from home, desperate to find refuge elsewhere, faced with the abyss of dehumanization.

monsters”

The temporary residence in Moscow of the newly dissolved communist regime is a horror story with “monsters” of corrupt policemen.

His two sisters’ journey to Sweden, locked inside a shipping container by unscrupulous traders, has turned into a nightmare. The boat on which he and other refugees cross the stormy Baltic is like a road to hell. And when the storm passes, something even more chilling happens: they are met by a Norwegian cruise ship, and on its rails, European tourists look at the sprawling Afghan refugees with a mixture of pity, bewilderment and disgust. They eventually leave without taking them. For us film viewers, this is a scene of identification that creates a sense of shame.

The film’s art is amazing, reminiscent of some of the best visual French comics of the 80s and 90s and, to some extent, the Japanese manga tradition. The moments it turns into a documentary maintain its historical context, occasionally showing scenes from the current events of the time, and scenes that dive deep into the protagonist’s most painful memories are tinted with grey, dark coals, thus creating a parallel action of a painted trauma.

“I hope this film will help us treat others with kindness,” says character illustrator Mikel Sommer.

Moments of humor

But there are also humorous moments in “Run” that promise that “things will get better one day,” such as when the protagonist introduces his teen idol, the very “cool” actor Jean-Claude Van Damme, winking at him as if wishing remind him that “it’s okay to be gay”. And when now in Sweden, where he is visiting his brothers after a thousand adventures, he finds himself at an innocent, colorful celebration of a gay bar, Daft Punk’s touching “Veridis Quo” is heard and as if, finally, the light shines dazzlingly after such darkness

And yet it is this scene with the Norwegian cruise ship that sticks in our minds, it holds a mirror in front of us and makes us ashamed. Stories like “Running” are constantly happening all around us: in the Middle East, in Ukraine, in the Aegean – all over the planet. As Danay Katopodi, production manager at one of the animation studios behind the film, told us, “I was very excited to be involved in a project that addresses very real and important social issues. The film industry (and animation) is primarily focused on entertainment, so many of us who work in it often feel like our work doesn’t have much substance, that we don’t offer much to the rest of society. Given that the refugee issue is well-documented and covered regularly in the media, I hope that this film will not only be a wake-up call, but will generate much-needed sympathy from an insensitive audience.”

Similar thoughts were shared with us by another key production contributor, illustrator and character designer Mikkel Sommer. “I hope this movie helps us treat the people around us with kindness and teaches us some important things about human nature, history, trauma, resilience and compassion,” he told us when we met with Ms. Katopodi at a recent animation festival. “Animasiros” Ermoupoli-Syros.

Nightmares and light

Light has finally dawned on Run, but for some, the road to it is littered with nightmares. And the film, like the trauma it commemorates, is not easy to forget.

Escape won the Grand Prix at the Sundance International Film Festival, Best Film at the Annecy International Animation Festival and was nominated for three Oscars in 2021. It will come to Greek theaters tomorrow, Thursday, November 3rd.