This Masterpiece About a Charming Cat With 97% on RT Is the Biggest Hidden Gem of 2024

By the end of 2024, the animated film by Latvian director Gints Zilbalodis had won a slew of awards. Four awards at the French animation festival in Annecy, awards from various film critics' societies, top lists of the best films of the year, a Golden Globe nomination and an almost inevitable Oscar nomination.

All for the adventures of a black cat.

What Is Flow About?

In a world where there are no more people, an ordinary house cat walks. He continues to live in the house of his owner, a sculptor, and sleeps in his bed as usual, until one day a great flood comes.

To escape the water, the cat jumps into a sailboat in which a capybara is already traveling. They drift along, giving in to the current, picking up other victims along the way: a trinket-loving lemur; an annoyingly friendly golden retriever; and a large bird.

Each has its own temperament and habits, so along the way the animals must find a common language, not without scandal – and not everyone will find it.

Flow Is an Almost Silent Movie That Manages to Be Gripping

The animals each speak their own language, but generally understand each other more or less. There are no subtitles in human language, so the audience has to guess what the characters mean when they meow, bark or squeak.

Flow cannot be called a silent movie, but it is impossible to rely on verbal information when perceiving it. Only the language of images and action. At the same time, the viewer may unexpectedly discover that the movie is captivating even without words.

Despite Low-Budget, Flow Captivates with Its Visuals

Since the movie is very low-budget, the character graphics are quite modest: they have sharp tonal transitions and the necessary minimum of detail. However, this limitation works in Zilbalodis' favor, as it shifts the visual emphasis from form to movement.

The boat is almost always in motion, and the landscapes of the flooded world float past the animals. Compared to the character graphics, the environment is more detailed, but with an impressionistic liveliness.

The characters wander through an enchanted kingdom where East and West are mixed, something like Venetian streets and temple complexes, they meet a great rock and a sea monster.

Flow Is Suitable for Both Kids and Adults

You can watch Flow with children, but it will be more interesting for an audience over 16 years old. Zilbalodis' creation requires the viewer to be observant and have some experience in interpreting animal behavior.

Flow is quite unique in the disaster movie genre because we are much more active in caring for the animal characters than for the humans. And we are even more willing to root for a cat that is afraid of water.

Where to Watch Flow?

Flow is available to rent or buy on Apple TV.