Flow – Film Review
by Frank L.

Director – Gints Zilbalodis
Writers – Gints Zilbalodis, Matiss Kaza, Ron Dyens

At the Oscars, Flow won the award for Best Animated Feature. It was up against large productions such as Inside Out 2 and The Wild Robot, which cost hundreds of millions to produce. It was the first time a Latvian film had been nominated at the Oscars. Its budget was a meagre €3.5 million. It was a major triumph for its director Zilbalodis.

The film introduces the audience to the animated world of Flow who is a most engaging cat. Flow is a survivor of a flood of biblical proportions. She manages to find a haven on a sailboat where her companions include a labrador dog, some lemurs, a secretary bird and a capybara. Each of them displays their own natural characteristics. In addition, each of them realises that they are bound together if they want to survive.

The entire film is populated by birds and animals of various types. At the beginning for instance there is a magnificent marauding herd of deer seeking to evade the oncoming flood. It is an impressive sight. All the animals are engagingly drawn and as they interact with each other a feel-good atmosphere infuses the proceedings. However, one animal in particular does not appear and that is the human being. Nor does Zilbalodis give any of the creatures any human characteristics. They are portrayed with their inherent characteristics to the fore. It makes for an engaging film.

As there are no humans it follows that there are no words. Each creature relies on its own attributes to display its various moods and emotions with Flow being centre stage. There is a fine complementary soundtrack which adds to the pleasure of it all.

It lasts just about ninety minutes but in that short time, Zilbalodis has brought you into a world where a disaster has struck. However, the cooperative and generous spirit of those creatures that Flow encounters ensures that you leave the cinema uplifted and in a good mood – no small achievement in these troubled times.