Representatives of the three films shortlisted for the Lux Audience award are in Strasbourg and speak about the lessons to be drawn from the stories portrayed in their movies. Statement by Jonas Poher Rasmussen, director of "Flee".

film-maker

cinema

social inclusion and integration of refugees (T)

LUX European Audience Film Award 2022 (T)

Lux Audience Award 2022: statements by the finalists - Jonas Poher Rasmussen, director of "Flee"

https://api.multimedia.europarl.europa.eu/documents/20125/40253780/1654609211476_I226326Chapters%5BSD-EN%5D.srt

SOUNDBITE (English), Jonas POHER RASMUSSEN, Director of &quot;Flee&quot;, Flee is an animated documentary about a very dear friend of mine, and it's his testimony about being a child refugee from Afghanistan and being on the run for five years before he arrives all by himself in my little hometown. So it's basically a story about finding a place in the world, finding a home in the world where you feel you can be who you are with everything that entails. I mean, he's not only a refugee, he's also gay. So finding that place, in the world where he feels accepted for being who he is, is truly what the story is about.

SOUNDBITE (English), Jonas POHER RASMUSSEN, Director of "Flee", I grew up in this very small Danish rural village, and then one day when I was 15 years old, you know, Amin showed up all by himself from Afghanistan. And pretty soon, you know, we would start meeting up at the bus stop every morning, going to high school. And we became really good friends. And already back then, I was curious about how and why he had come, but he didn't want to talk about it. And I, of course, respected that. But it kind of became this mystery or this kind of black box in our friendship and within him and something he couldn't address. And that was like that for almost 20 years until he finally decided that he wanted to open up and share his story because he felt this kind of disconnect in his life because he couldn't make his past and present connect. So he felt the need to connect those two and feel whole again. And that's kind of where the project started and where we talked about doing this thing together and making an animated documentary about this story.

SOUNDBITE (English), Jonas POHER RASMUSSEN, Director of "Flee", It is definitely a European story about, you know, a refugee child who's coming to our borders and who needs help and how to find a place in the world and how to be able to be a part of our society. So I think it does mean a lot to me, and it means a lot that it's an audience award that, you know, that you have both the parliament and and audience across Europe who see the film and who vote for it. So. So it would be amazing to get this prize.

SOUNDBITE (English), Jonas POHER RASMUSSEN, Director of "Flee", Being a refugee is not an identity. Being gay is not an identity. Being refugee is a circumstance of life. And it's something that could happen to everyone. So it's it's to try to look beyond that and not put people in boxes, but look at, you know, the human value and look at how can we support each other and and help each other and see this, like how connected we all are and that we need to help each other to solve the issues we have in the world.