History WesternAnimation / Flee

* ArtShift: Most of the animation is done in a pretty realistic 2-D style that resembles {{Rotoscoping}}, even though it isn't. But certain moments, usually traumatic ones like Amir's memory of the day his father was arrested or when he was arrested by Estonian border police, are done in an abstract black-and-white style.

* HidingBehindTheLanguageBarrier: Accidentally. Amir and his family are part of a group of migrants leaving Russia illegally, by foot. When an old lady can't keep up in the snow and cold, their {{Mafiya}} guides suggest shooting her in the head. Looking back some 25 years later, Amir says "That woman...It's good she didn't understand Russian."

* WhyWereBummedCommunismFell: Amin notes that the fall of communism in Russia left the peole starving, with empty shelves, a skyrocketing crime rate, and out-of-control corruption.

It is, rather uniquely, an animated documentary. Amin Nawabi (a pseudonym) was born in Afghanistan around the time of the Soviet invasion and the beginning of the Soviet-Afghan war. Amin's older brother narrowly avoids conscription in the pro-Soviet government forces, and his whole family manages to get out of Kabul just before it falls to the mujahedeen. Their troubles are not over, however, as they overstay their visa in Moscow and wind up stateless.
Additionally, Amin has a secret that he has kept from his family: he is gay.

* ArtShift: Most of the animation is done in a pretty realistic 2-D style that resembles {{Rotoscoping}}, even though it isn't. But certain moments, usually traumatic ones like Amir's memory of the day his father was arrested or when he was arrested by Estonian border police, are done in an abstract black-and-white styel.

* WhyWereBummedCommunismFell: Amin notes that the fall of communism in Russia left the peole starving, with empty shelves, a skyrocketing crime rate, and out-of-control corruption.

* EverybodyKnewAlready: Amin is terrified that if he tells his family he's gay, they'll disown him. When he finally does it, his brother takes him to a gay bar and says "We always knew."

* WhereEverybodyKnowsYourFlame: Amin finally confesses to his siblings that he's gay. His brother takes him for a ride in the car, then drops him off...in front of a gay bar. It's a liberating moment for Amin.

* ArtShift: Most of the animation is done in a pretty realistic 2-D style that resembles {{Rotoscoping}}, even though it isn't. But certain moments, usually traumatic ones like Amir's memory of the day his father was arrested, are done in an abstract black-and-white styel.

* BondingThroughSharedEarbuds: Amir has a flirty moment in the strangest setting, sharing his headphones with a handsome boy and thinking "I've got a crush on him," as the two are in the back of a smuggler's van being taken to Ukraine.

* MediumBlending: A mostly animated film is liberally sprinkled with live-action StockFootage clips of historical moments like the Soviet-Afghan war.
* ThePurge: Amir's father is taken away, one of 3000 people arrested by StateSec during a political purge. He's later executed.
* ShoutOut: Amir starts realizing his sexuality as a boy, when he realizes he's not reacting to Creator/JeanClaudeVanDamme action movies the way his brothers are. When they're flipping channels he insists the whole family watch ''Film/{{Bloodsport}}''.
* StockFootage: Not all the film is animated: there are many live-action stock footage clips establishing settings, like Afghanistan DuringTheWar, or Moscow in the early '90s as Russia reels from the fall of Communism.

* FramingDevice: The film plays out as a series of interviews that Amin gives to an old friend and documentarian (voiced by an uncredited Jonas Rasmussen).