Usually when we think of animation, we tend to think of Disney or Hayao Miyazaki’s work, but as a film genre, animation is not just about these stereotypes, it can also be used to express more diverse themes, such as oversized eroticism, with Yang Fan’s Jiyuantai No. 7 being one of the more outstanding examples in recent years. Another recent and refreshing animation is about a gay Afghan refugee, and because it is a true story, the creators have used this particular format to make this amazing documentary in order to protect the identity of the person concerned.
We have seen many documentaries on the subject of Afghan refugees, but this one is a bit like Midnight Walker from a few years ago, also about an Afghan family whose parents take their children through a difficult escape from Afghanistan to the European continent, using the perspective of the refugees themselves to present their painful and horrible memories of the escape, but this one focuses on the double label of the main character: refugee and homosexuality.
The film’s depiction of refugees resorting to immoral (lying) methods in order to enter Europe certainly satirises the flawed European immigration policy and the supposedly messianic tone of the Europeans. In contrast to the cold-blooded snakehead traffickers and corrupt Russian police he encounters on the way out, Europe’s refugee policy is just as frightening and morally torturous for the protagonist, who has to live a lie in order to get a new life. Fortunately, he has the full support of his family, which enables him to be honest about his sexuality and allows him to open up and find a life of his own in a foreign country.
Despite the title of this animated documentary, a life on the run is not the life the protagonist wants. At the very beginning, he explains his idea of “home”: a safe place, a place where he can stop and not have to run, a place that is not temporary. It can be in Afghanistan, but also in Denmark, Sweden, the USA …… and later the refugee family is forced to live in various parts of Europe. From the protagonist’s point of view, if he can find a happy and secure life, a place where he no longer has to repress his instincts, that is his home, and he is willing to take the risk and try, no matter what the price he has to pay for it.