Latvian director Gints Zilbalodis’s Flow takes the popular phrase “go with the flow” to a whole other level.
This article contains spoilers for the movie Flow.
Flow is an animated fantasy film about a lonesome cat who is forced to work with a whole range of animals after a great flood overtakes all of their habitats.
On Sept. 14, the film had its North American premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) and wowed both adults and kids alike given that it was one of the few animated movies that made it to the festival.
Although the movie is animated and has absolutely no dialogue, this is not a film that can just be put on the background while mindlessly scrolling on social media. You have to pay extra attention because the sounds are from nature and the animals.
Flow was shown at the Cannes Film Festival and won the Best International Feature Film at the Academy Awards.
Before the film started, Zilbalodis confessed to the audience he identified with the main character, a nameless cat, because of his fear of working with others and self-sufficient nature.
I, too, nodded my head in agreement and was even more intrigued by the title of the movie and the journey we were about to embark on.
Aesthetically, the film feels like an RPG video game with the blend of pixelated animals and realistic landscapes. I was surprised the graphics weren’t as high-tech as a lot of other animated films, but I also liked the grainy imagery at the same time.
The beginning focuses on a small cat with wandering eyes, but who mainly likes to keep to himself. However, all of the other animals are willing to help him right away with the unexpected hurdles he’ll have to face.
The flow of the movie starts immediately. After wandering around the forest, the kitty hears a rumbling and a team of moose rummage through along with a group of barking dogs. Instead of taking the warning, the cat just looks beyond the horizon to see what happens.
There were moments in the movie that forces you to pay attention because you’re in a world of various animals and species who can only communicate through sounds. I’lll never forget the moment the cat was caught up in a rush of water that eventually damaged his home and took him out into a deep lake he could barely swim in.
I enjoyed the playful use of stereotypes of animals throughout Flow, like when one of the dogs was so happy-go-lucky that all he wanted to do was bark and play around, despite the entire forest basically being under water. It shows us that sometimes the best attitude to have in adverse situations is to just be grateful to be alive.
Most of the movie takes place on a raft that continues to flow wherever the water takes them. The crew of animals have to face weather challenges, figuring out if they should go back to their own clans, and how to navigate life both individually and together.
Teamwork was at the centre of the movie. I thought it was interesting that the cat kept resisting that he was part of the team, while everyone had already accepted that they needed each other if they wanted to survive.
The audience gets to see the beautiful world that the Latvian director and writers created, from tropical rainforests, lush swamps, and European-inspired boat corridors. Flow encapsulates the beautiful landscapes and timing of Mother Nature.
One of my favourite parts of the movie is when a large bird selflessly serves as the cat’s protector. The cat is almost afraid of everything because he doesn’t trust anyone other than himself. When he was sprinting because he didn’t know what was happening around him, the large bird decided to protect him.
However, it was at the expense of being humiliated in front of his tribe and even getting one of his wings injured. For the rest of the movie, there’s this image of the bird hovering over the cat. I was touched by his behaviour because he fought for a cause that he believed in regardless of what his own species thought of him.
In fact, all of the animals leave their own tribes to help each other. The lemur was a shadow character to the cat with his obsession of collecting material possessions. It was almost like a safety mechanism that we humans resort to, where keeping or taking care of something makes us feel like we have some sort of control and protection over ourselves.
That idea was disbanded too when several glass bottles and mirrors either broke or floated away in the flowing waters.
Eventually, the direction of the water took the animals back to their own tribes, leaving the cat almost heartbroken. But then, they all came back to each other out of their own choice, rather than when the flood first forced them together.
This really had me thinking about the idea of free will and sometimes how we have a choice and other times we just have to obey what life presents us.
What I found the most interesting is that the cat is usually the only one yearning for a specific outcome, whether that’s wishing his home was never destroyed or that the other animals don’t leave him. Meanwhile, everyone else is simply accepting what’s happening and then deciding what they’re going to do based on the current circumstances rather than focusing on what they want in the future.
The last bit of the movie blew me away when the cat and one of the other animals were about to die.
The animals, including the dog, and the dog’s friends joined up to help the cat. However, the dogs that weren’t on the journey got distracted by chasing rabbits instead of saving the cat, showing the power of focus and undoubtedly believing in a larger purpose even if that means sacrificing those little impulses that can cloud your judgment.
Flow is a movie for all of us who are questioning if we are truly in control of our lives, and teaches us that sometimes, all we need to do is step back, breathe, and go with the flow.
