Big yellow cat eyes are looking at me from movie poster, and I feel hypnotized. They belong to a black cat whose imperfect cartoon look encouraged me to go to the cinema and for which I kept my fingers crossed during the almost one and a half hour screening. I advise you to do the same 🙂
I usually don’t watch animated films. I watched “Shrek” (and its sequels), but this film turned out to be interesting partly because of the plot and originality, and partly because of the excellent dubbing (at least it was so in Polish version). And what about “Flow”? First of all, I have a weakness for black cats: I like watching a black feline individualist (that belongs to my neighbours) walking (and sometimes meowing) around, who at every step emphasizes with his behavior how to live independently and not care about others (and I mean that literally: the cat has a habit of sleeping in the middle of the street and does not care about passing cars – after all, the car wants to pass by, so he should avoid it). Secondly and next, I was intrigued by the poster, interesting early film reviews and the fact that the film is nominated for an Oscar. And I have an unpopular rule that if I want to comment on the jury’s decision to award the statuettes, it is worth to watch the film first. Yes, I know that this is a terribly outdated view, but what else can you expect from a person who was born in 1983? 🙂
“Flow” is a Latvian-French-Belgian animated production directed by Gilts Zilbalodis. But if, like me, you also like the fact that in addition to the image you can listen to the dialogues in the original language, then great, but… you have to choose another film. Because „Flow” is an animation without dialogues! But don’t worry: there is a chance that you will not pay attention to it at all or you will notice it only when you hear a question about the dubbing in your language. And that’s one of the magic elements of this Latvian Oscar-nominated film: ensuring that the plot itself, telling the story of very different animals, is sufficient.
And the plot itself seems trivial. The perfect life of the animals (especially of the black cat, who lives in a house in front of which there are many cat sculptures) is interrupted by the rising water level, which makes them escape from the forest, in order to survive. It gets really dangerous, but even in life there are happy coincisences and in an animated film they happen even more often! The cat manages to save himself at the very last moment by jumping into an old sailboat that is just passing by. But not everything can be that perfect – the boat already has a tenant – a capybara. However, it is not particularly concerned about the appearance of the new arrival – in other words, it does not mind and … goes back to its activities. Then the two are joined by a bird (secretary), a Labrador and a lemur. As quite often in such situations, it is not easy for so many personalities to get along together in a small space, but the animals have the same goal – to find a safe land, and this unites them. Which of course does not mean that it is always perfect. But it is interesting, funny and moving – just like in life!
Only when watching an animation without dialogues can we realize how many interpretations such an artistic form gives to the recipients. In this case, words would greatly limit our imagination, and I, for example, catch myself that the more often I think back to this film, the more content I find in it. The magic of cinema : )
The director Gilts Zilbalodis must be either a cat lover or a very careful observer (or both at the same time). He brilliantly captured the behavior of the black furry creature and included the different types of meows of this complex cat personality. At one moment the cat looks with contempt at the labrador, who tries to imitate him and become his friend, and at another he plays with the light. But there are also moments when Flow (I don’t know why, but for me the title of the film suits the name of this black cat) feels helpless when he falls into the water, or when he starts to miss his companions from the expedition.
“Flow” is a story in which everyone will find something for themselves. Children will follow with curiosity the adventures of the animals and adults will perhaps look for reflections of their own character traits in the characters of the animation, or they will simply focus on the technical aspects of this production and analyze how interestingly this film is made. Intense colors, wonderful views, well-matched music – all this makes me unable to find something I didn’t like : ) And those “imperfect” characters that I mentioned at the beginning become more and more beautiful in our eyes with each frame. Some will see in “Flow” a warning about water that is getting closer, while others will see a story about relationships, compromise, independence and building trust.
So I encourage you to visit the cinema and keep your fingers crossed for Gilts Zilbalodis and the entire “Flow” team during the Oscars!
And let me know your impressions!