Flow

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In a cat's world, the houses and gardens are full of cat sculptures and there is a monumental feline statue on the highest mountain. On the other hand, the biggest nightmare in such a world would probably be an unexpected flood that submerges everything and forces the cat to swim. This is exactly what happens - after the mentioned cat-idyllic opening - in the second feature-length animated film by Gints Zilbalodis, with which the Latvian director has already won every conceivable trophy in the parallel universe of animated films and now also the Oscar. You don't need three of the film's eighty minutes to understand this prize-winning feat. Zilbalodis and his crew create beguilingly light-flooded images of gently alienated nature, through which their ‘camera’ moves with balletic effortlessness: stupendous tracking shots at the heroine's eye level through meadows, forests or the legs of larger animals, majestic panoramic pans during which the immaterial camera is still travelling in space. You don't need to know about the technical skill behind this unleashed view, its advantage over the earth-heavy real film is obvious. The story? Actually, it hardly plays a role. The cat makes it onto an abandoned boat, other animals get on board, together they drift between mountain ridges and through flooded towns, bickering and bonding until the flood ends as gratuitously as it began. More importantly, the animals don't talk and are not animalistic, draped humans like the superstars and their funny sidekicks in the usual animated blockbusters. Every now and then they growl, snarl or croak, otherwise magical silence prevails apart from the restrained music. Enough for eighty minutes? Sit back and immerse yourself: Everything flows.