Dir: Gints Zilbalodis | Animation 75′ 2024
There a several apocalyptic animated films on at the moment. Dreamlike, dazzling and enchanting they capture tragedy from the perspective of two species forced to adapt and collaborate with the animal kingdom in order to survive.
In some ways this is a metaphor for upheaval in our human world but seen through the eyes of cute furry creatures the impact of the parable is somehow softened and made accessible to both young and old.
The Wild Robot pictures an appealing robot forced into a motherly role of guiding a vulnerable fledgling gosling through the first days of its life on a desert island.
In Flow a solitary black cat is forced out of his bosky base in a forest and embarks on an intrepid odyssey when his home is devastated by a flood. Rather like in the bible story of Noah’s Arc, Flow must team up with the others and make the best of the situation. The emphasis one again is kindness and empathy.
Seen entirely from the point of view of nature and animals this is a simple but engrossing story that requires nothing of the audience but to watch and listen to the ambient sounds as the images glide by.
The previous outing by director Gints Zilbalodis, Away (2019), was an almost entirely solo effort, with the Latvian animator crafting the entire film from storyboarding to score and sound editing. This new feature – that also made its debut at Annecy Animation film festival – is more ambitious but has the same delicate look.
Zilbalodis builds a strange 3D world where giant statues of cats tower over the trees; there are relics from a world that humans once built. After a torrential flood of biblical proportions all the cities are drowned under water, and the cat finds himself with a dog, a capybara. Soon they are joined by a bird and a lemur and gradually begin working together.
Flow is entirely free of dialogue but Zilbalodis avoids sentimentality or anthropomorphism in this gentle depiction of the animal kingdom face to face with so-called ‘climate change’. @MeredithTaylor
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