Is it possible to like an animated film with absolutely no human dialogue? The Latvian film Flow attempts to do just that.
For the sake of this film, I will give the animal characters names related to their species. For example, I will refer to the cat as Cat, the main dog in the story as Dog and the capybara as Capybara. The black cat lives on an island in a post-human Earth that is full of animal species. Cat lives his life daily chasing and eating fish, playing with other species and avoiding being chased by wild dogs, predatory birds and a giant whale beneath the river. Cat also makes himself comfortable in one area that was a human home and has statues which appears to make cats God-like. He takes delight in the many things in the house from the bed to the glass balls to the cat drawings.
Then suddenly, a huge tsunami overtakes the area leaving an ocean-like body of water behind without land or a flat surface. Just the roofs of buildings showing through. Cat tries to stay afloat on whatever he can from one of the glass balls to something wooden but soon notices a stray sailboat and a chance for refuge. He tries to jump, but misses and appears to be sucked to the surface of this new ocean. Instead something mysterious carries him up and he’s able to find his way to the back of a whale. Whale is able to float high enough for Cat to make his way on the boat. Finally some refuge.
There’s one problem. The boat also has a capybara, a lemur and a secretary bird. Cat fears for his life but Capybara assures him no one will hurt him. As they sail along with no hope of the water’s subsiding in sight, the animals try to live in the boat the best way they can with no knowledge of how to deal with these changes. The capybara is easily tired, but protective. The lemur takes great interest in the human items in the boat and becomes greedy with them. The bird becomes arrogant. Cat steers the boat but faces competition from other animals, especial Lemur. Then in another boat, they notice a lone Labrador dog. Cat is afraid to have him on board, but the dog is let on board and is warned by Capybara not to mess with Cat.
Over time, Cat becomes friends with Lemur, Bird, Capybara and Dog. Problems still arise, though. As they search for land, Cat gets hungry. Bird helps him find fish but Dog eats it. Lemur gets protective of his possessions. There’s also trying to find land for all of them and fear of Whale capsizing the boat every time he surfaces. One land they spotted was where a flock of elks walked around in a circle, but it was too underwater. Soon land is spotted and Cat gets out, but is met with a flock of secretary birds. Bird comes to his defense and tries to fight the leader. Bird is left weakened by the fight as the other birds fly off and returns with Cat and others to the boat. Cat sees a tall pillar and tries to go to the top with Bird. Soon a great spirit world happens which carries Bird up to the heavens.
The animals must sail on. Soon they notice another stray boat that has four other dogs: Dog’s friends. They are scared on the boat but they are let on. Dog gives his dog friends the warning do not harm cat! Soon the water subsides quickly and land is spotted. Cat jumps out and explores the land. Soon he tries to look for all his friends from the boat. He can’t find them. Even as he sees a group of lemurs, he can’t find Lemur. Then he notices the boat in the branch of a tree in a valley that’s about to fall into the river far below. The water subsided so fast, it left the sailboat stuck in that tree and the other animals unable to get out. Cat comes to the rescue. As each other animal comes out, they try and assist the others before the tree with the boat falls into the river. They succeed, but Dog’s dog friends leave him behind. They have each other. They also notice another problem with the wave subsiding, but it all works out in the end.
Reflecting back on this film, I don’t think this film has a sociopolitical message in it. I’ve seen entertainment of beings on an Earth without humans before. I feel it’s just a story that presents it well with a lot of moments of humor and a lot of moments of wonder. The film possesses two key ingredients for making an animated film work. The first is dazzling graphics. One thing I look for in an animated film is for it to take you to another world or mesmerize you. This film succeeds in delivering mesmerizing images to capture the viewer’s imagination. The world created in this film is a world of mystery and wonder and makes the story.
The second key ingredient in this film is an excellent story. It’s funny that there is no human dialogue — just animal noises — but you get the messages by the animals’ body language to each other and the ways they communicate with their animal sounds. You just have to watch the film itself and you will get the messages very clearly. The story itself appears to be a mesh of the Biblical Noah’s Ark story and the film The Life Of Pi. You can sense those aspects in the story. The story also keeps you wondering what will happen next. Will this world stay mostly underwater? Or will the flood subside? How will the animals live on? You’re left wondering throughout.
This film also got me thinking of how animals are depicted in animation. I’ve seen a lot of animated films and television shows and I can honestly say I have never seen one where animals are 100% with their animal characteristics. You’ll always sense some human characteristics in the characters. I’m sure throughout your childhood, you’ve seen cartoons of talking animals with human movements. Those are the least animal-like in cartoons. Also there have been many where animals still use their animal noises but move and behave in human manner. In this film, the animals all have a good amount of their animal characteristics in them. The more human characteristics all come out at the right times. I could not sense one instance where there was the wrong type of behavior for the characters.
This film is an excellent accomplishment for Latvian animator Gints Zilbalodis. All of his previous animated films have been wordless from shorts like Followers and Oasis to his first feature: 2019’s Away. It’s an accomplishment of a film which he not only directs, but he co-wrote with Matiss Kaza, co-produced, co-composed the score with Rihards Zalupe and did the cinematography, art direction and film editing all himself! The film is also a big improvement from his first attempt at a wordless animated feature in Away. Here the story makes better sense and the visuals are as good at telling the story as they are eye catching. If any film should have Disney looking over its shoulder, it’s this film here!
Interesting to note this film is Latvia’s entry in this year’s Oscar race for Best International Feature Film. I find it interesting that under the rules, or lack of such a rule, a film without any human dialogue is allowed to be entered into this category. In the past and when the category was titled Best Foreign Language Film, the category consisted of solid rules like the film had to be in the nation’s national language or have at least some dialogue of it if another language dominates. Will this film lead to revisions in language rules in this Oscar category? Only time will tell. Outside of the Oscars, this film has won many an award and nomination like animated feature awards at film festivals in Guadalajara, Ottawa and Silk Road. It’s also won other film festival awards like Best Picture and the Audience Award in Athens, the Bright Horizons Award in Melbourne and various awards at the Annecy Animated Film Festival. Other noteworthy nominations include Un Certain Regard at the Cannes Film Festival and European Animated Feature for the upcoming European Film Awards.
Flow is an incredible film and an excellent story. The visuals and the animal interactions do a great job of telling the story for you and the images are a delight to see.
Jon The Blogcentric 