DIRECTOR: Gints Zilbalodis
STARRING: animation
RUNNING TIME: 1 hr 25 minutes
LANGUAGE: no spoken language

Cat is a solitary animal, but as its home is devastated by a great flood, he finds refuge on a boat populated by various species, and will have to team up with them despite their differences. In the lonesome boat sailing through mystical overflowed landscapes, they navigate the challenges and dangers of adapting to this new world.

***

Flow is the second animated feature film from director Gints Zilbalodis. The film had its world premiere in the Un Certain Regard section of the Cannes Film Festival and won four prizes at Annecy, including winning the Audience Award.

Latvia’s selection was made by the Latvian Selection Committee, a commission of film industry experts established by the National Film Center.

The film was co-written by Zilbalodis and Matīss Kaža, with a score by Zilbalodis and Rihards Zalupe. It was produced by Zilbalodis and Kaza, alongside Ron Dyens and Gregory Zalcman, under Dream Well Studio, Sacrebleu Productions and Take Five.

Flow is an animated drama.

https://youtu.be/82WW9dVbglI?si=ILVau4qXxU9Ily8N
https://youtube.com/watch?v=82WW9dVbglI

We saw this masterpiece as a family today and we all loved it. We remarked on its poetics, and how often we felt sad or happy or both at the same time. Gorgeous animation, powerful story about empathy and companionship in the flow of life.

Beautiful, movie. Pure visual storytelling, in that I didn't always understand what was happening in a way I could explain, but emotionally "understood" and was very moved. The only movie I've seen this year I would recommend to everyone I know.

Moot point, but I wasn't 100% pleased with the texture of the animation style. The surfaces of the characters reminded me of how the pixels blur together on a low-rez video. Whatever, doesn't matter.

I did unfortunately suffer a panic attack during the movie. Not sure if that was the result of something specifically to do with me, or if I was triggered by the drowning/height imagery.

Can't wait to see this.
This is a rare case where I will pay full price at release for the digital copy rather than waiting on a sale.

This will eventually get a Janus Contemporaries home media release (Criterion-adjacent).

Just saw this at the local art-house theater. Excellent movie. One of my favorite reviews of it compared the stress level to that in Uncut Gems

Quite easily, my favorite animated film of the year.

This looks pretty cool. I love how there is no dialogue, they just let the animals be animals.

There is the one non-animal thing they all do, which I guess was necessary to keep the movie from being aimlessly adrift.

Coming to MAX next Friday, 2/14. Watch it, everyone!

Criterion 4K release coming.

https://www.indiewire.com/news/break...on-1235094966/

Was it set in the past or future or have some fantasy elements with a lizard like creature swimming in the water and cat and other animal monuments and statues on display?

I took the setting as an other-wordly earth, a sort of magical realism in a fictionalized version of earth that was tweaked from what we know, perhaps set in the near future but not necessarily.

I watched this with my kids last weekend. I enjoyed it. It was both simple and extremely complex depending on how deep I wanted to look into it.

Despite there being no dialogue, my sons, the youngest being 5, were all captivated the entire time.