In the 95-year historical past of the Academy Awards, a Latvian movie has by no means been nominated for an Oscar. In 2025, it is potential that Gints Zilbalodis’ celebrated marvel, “Flow,” will earn not solely an animated characteristic nomination, but additionally a spot within the worldwide characteristic movie class. For a movie that is ostensibly a couple of anonymous cat who experiences a monster flood alongside a very energetic canine, a pleasant South American capybara, a lemur, and a statuesque African secretary chook with a broken wing, these might seem to be intellectual expectations.
But there’s extra to the story, says Zilbalodis, who entered the worldwide animation scene after single-handedly directing the 2019 movie “Away.” The director drew inspiration to create “Flow,” partially, from a cat he had in highschool. At the time, the story manifested itself in a “quite simple hand-drawn” brief movie a couple of cat and its worry of water: a common narrative that allowed the story to proceed with out a conventional antagonist.
“It’s actually simply the cat in opposition to nature, or it is actually a cat in opposition to itself. He has to beat his fears,” says Zilbalodis. “Many years later I made a decision to revisit this premise. But this time the main focus is extra on the cat’s relationship with different animals. The water is correct there, a metaphor principally for this worry, as a result of the cat could be very impartial and should study to work along with others and belief them.”
With the co-production between Latvia, France and Belgium, Zilbalodis went from being a jack of all trades to creating his personal manufacturing firm, thus reflecting the lone cat’s sudden must work in a staff atmosphere. “I used to be fairly desperate to do it. And a few of these anxieties are constructed into this story,” he says. He threw himself right into a mission 50 occasions larger than his final characteristic movie but additionally, above all, 50 occasions smaller than a Disney animated movie.
The animals should work collectively to outlive in “Flow.”
(Cannes Film Festival)
However, a bigger group of collaborators doesn’t suggest that Zilbalodis’ affect is not felt all through the movie. In addition to directing, producing and designing many of the important characters, he co-wrote the screenplay and is, amongst different roles, director of images, editor and composer.
“It’s just a little embarrassing to see my identify just a few occasions within the credit, however we would have liked to checklist these totally different titles for contractual functions,” Zilbalodis says coyly. “What I wasn’t actually concerned in was the precise animation, the motion of the characters, the efficiency, which I let different individuals do significantly better than me to do. I had each shot designed, edited and lit. But if an animator urged one thing, it was essential to attempt to incorporate these concepts.”
However, “Flow” confronted a number of urgent challenges. The first addressed an age-old animation downside: creating sensible water. Zilbalodis laments that just about “each scene required the event of a brand new instrument. It’s not like we’ve got one device for every type of water. We have a device for a puddle, we’ve got a device for a lake, a stormy sea, just a little splash, a giant splash. So, we needed to develop loads of new applied sciences and instruments.”
The movie additionally options a number of spectacular lengthy photographs because the cameras comply with the characters. “Some of those photographs had been so heavy, with so many alternative characters and environments, that managing them was actually tough. All the pipelines that animators are used to should not designed for this sort of capturing. Any changes would trigger the pc to freeze for a second earlier than readjusting something.
The movie opens with our feline encountering a pack of overzealous canines within the flowery forest earlier than taking a nap in a seemingly deserted Northern European-inspired home. There is not a human in sight, nevertheless it seems the house’s former proprietor was a sculptor impressed by felines.
“I wished it to really feel fairly timeless. It could possibly be as if this home was 100 years previous. It could possibly be a more recent one,” says Zilbalodis. “It was intentional. So, the atmosphere is continually evolving and altering, and it is not only for the sensation of trying good. It’s there to assist us perceive these characters.
After a flood overwhelms the cat’s home, he finds himself on a small sailboat along with the opposite three animals. As the movie progresses, they journey via architectural ruins which are typically tough to position. And, similar to the cat, Zilbalodis needs us to really feel as if we’re experiencing these locations for the primary time. And because it’s from the cat’s standpoint, all the things appears even larger than it might from the human standpoint.
If you are hoping for a protracted exposition scene explaining what occurred earlier than the flood, you may be dissatisfied. Zilbalodis would discover it “fairly boring” to go that route. He believes that viewers must be lively contributors and never simply spoon-fed all the things. “I believe if the viewers has to work for one thing, they’ve to concentrate, so that they care extra about all the things, not simply the world but additionally the story itself. They change into extra engaged.”
