‘Flow’ Review: Latvia’s International Film Oscar Entry Is Animation Perfection
Somehow I missed Flow when it premiered in Un Certain Regard in May at the Cannes Film Festival. Now having seen it just as it is about to open nationwide, it exceeds the various pockets of praise I had heard. It is a magical mystery tour into a sinking world, a wondrous, haunting, mystical and beautiful motion picture, something so unique it almost feels like a dream. How about that?
Now it is not only becoming a genuine contender in a very competitive Animated Feature Oscar race, it is also Latvia’s official entry for Best International Feature. This week it just won Animated Feature from both the New York Film Critics and the National Board Of Review, and no question this is just the beginning for a movie that is like no other this year.
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Coming from Latvian animation filmmaker Gints Zilbalodis Flow represents only his second feature film, the first being Away, and in between he has done seven shorts, and in that time has only one of them that had dialogue. Flow joins the legion of his films that don’t talk, and it is a pleasure to encounter an animated film featuring animals not attempting to stand in place of humans, but rather just be themselves, no behavior like people or quippy lines or any of the rest of the stuff seen constantly in this form.
This is a world unto itself and takes place as a catastrophic flood has buried most of the environment , now seemingly populated by just a few creatures left on this earth, most notably a cat who is trying to deal with its home having been devastated by this act of Mother Nature, the signs of a life lived with a human no longer there but just remnants of drawings left behind and of pure emptiness.
As is a cat’s nature this one is simply trying to adjust, to survive,to climb up as high as what is left here will let him. Soon he latches on to a boat, and other animals appear. There is a very big, and proud, bird attempting to lead the journey. There is a lovable but rather dumb dog whose sweetness overcomes his intellect. There is a lemur out to collect whatever objects he can find and becomes especially fascinated with a mirror he discovers and can’t look away from. And there is also a capybara, a very chill type who gets along with everyone. Many things happen as the boat flows through the rising waters, engulfing trees, sailing past mysterious statues and towers which are daunting high goals for a cat who seems to be our guide in taking in all of this. None of them talk. There is no narration. The sound work and musical score by Rihards Zalupe and the director help define the mood as these living breathing creatures seek dry land and adjust to a very new way of living on this water logged place in the sun.
Flow in its sheer simpleness is one of the more profound experiences I have had in some time with a movie. Ultimately as this quintet continues on an unexpected adventure it becomes about a lot of things, but mostly community. This is now a world where nature has taken a calamitous course and in order to stay alive we have to adjust, but still find a way to do it together. Does this independent cat learn to join with others? Will the lemur stop being a hoarder? Does the dog grow wiser?
In a truly mystical sequence the bird appears to be heading higher towards a beyond not quite defined, and the cat follows jumping up the towers, but are they on the same life’s path at this point?
There is so much human beings, young and old, will find to relate to themselves in this gorgeously animated movie that does not ever once announce what it is about, what message it is trying to send, but instead just simply flows along to its own fascinating rhythms of life. We search for answers. Maybe we will find them. Like the cat, it is up to us to make the most of it all.
Producers are Zilbalodis, Matiss Kaza, Ron Dyens and Gregory Zalcman.
Title: Flow
Distributor: Sideshow and Janus Films
Release date: December 6, 2024
Director: Gints Zilbalodis
Screenwriters: Gints Zilbalodis and Matiss Kaza
Rating: PG
Running time: 1 hr 24 mins
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