Latvian: Straume ) It is an animated adventure film. Directed by Gints Zilbalodis. Written & produced by Zilbalodis & Matiss Kaza.
A Latvian, French& Belgian co-production, it features no dialogues. The story follows a cat with other animals in a seemingly post apocalyptic world as the water level dramatically rises.
Rated at 7.9.
Made on a budget of 3.5 millions it garnered 50 million.
No storyboards were used & Zilbalodis instead placed the animals into the scene & ‘explored them with the camera’. There are no deleted scenes from the film.
Capybaras & lemurs were studied in zoos, such as the Izu Shaboten Zoo in Japan. The whale was originally supposed to be based on a real whale, but it was redesigned to look more mythical.
The secretarybird was originally planned to be a seagull, but was changed because the seagull was too small. The boat used by the main characters was inspired by Mediterranean feluccas.
At the 97th Academy awards , Flow won Best Animated Feature. It won the Golden Globe Award for Best Animated feature film.
Rotten Tomatoes gave 97 % positive critics reviews. Metacritic gave a score of 87 out of 100, indicating ‘universal acclaim”.
Actor & director Bill Hader named ‘Flow’ his favorite film of 2024,saying he watched it three times & it made him want to get a cat despite being allergic to them.
Zilbalodis was honored as ‘Riga Citizen of the Year’in 2024. He said he had been approached to create a sequel to ‘Flow’ but chose not to make one, instead focusing on a different project with dialogue titled ‘Limbo’.
Looking at the animals looking out for each other on a journey together, grows on you. Wordlessly they show friendship & care for each other. The illustrators have done an excellent job.
The natural flora & fauna is it ‘s biggest asset. The detailing of every animal is perfect. No wonder it won awards hands down!
A beautiful experience.
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