This Year's Best Animated Gem Shines with a Perfect 100% on RT and Oscar Nod

Flow by Latvian director Gints Zilbalodis is a loose adaptation of his own short film Aqua, in which the protagonist was also a cat caught in a sudden flood, and his savior was a random bird.

Flow repeats the motifs, but uses a different narrative style and adds a company to the two characters. The image of the cat is probably borrowed from Zilbalodis' debut feature, Away, in which a traveling boy encounters an entire family of identical black cats. Flow can be seen as part of a dilogy about fascinating unknown spaces and the creatures that inhabit them.

What Is Flow About?

The man is gone, leaving only handmade objects: a wooden house with a cozy round window, a soft bed, blueprints, and huge statues. Now the place belongs to a nameless black cat who seems to enjoy his solitude – he spends all day running around the fields, skillfully hiding from the company of dogs.

But everything changes when the land is no longer safe and is covered with water. The cat takes refuge in a small boat, which is already occupied by a capybara. Soon, a lemur, a bird and a cheerful Labrador join the dream team.

Flow Is a New Level of Animation

The power of Flow lies not only in its absolutely adorable characters, but also in the beauty of the frame and the successful work with angles – the movie makes you rethink the power of animation that does not need human speech.

There are no words in the film – the sounds the animals make are specially recorded "lines," not artificially created sound effects.

The Characters Are Worked Out to the Smallest Detail

The team also spent many months observing the behavior of the prototypes in their natural habitat, filming them and watching videos to transfer the animals' habits to the screen with maximum accuracy.

Fortunately, the characters turned out to be anything but anthropomorphic – there is nothing human about them, and perhaps it is time for us to stop thinking of ourselves as the center of the universe. As the movie shows, the world existed before us and will continue to exist after us. Maybe these will be the best years on the planet.

Flow premiered in the Un Certain Regard section of the Cannes Film Festival. After its successful premiere, Zilbalodis' film was screened at a number of prestigious film festivals, including Toronto and the Ottawa International Animation Festival, where it won the main prize.

It is also known that Latvia has already nominated Flow for the future Oscar in the Best International Film category.

Where to Watch Flow?

Flow is available to rent or purchase on Apple TV.