Flow (2024)

Directed by Gints Zilbalodis

In a world free of humans, a staunchly independent cat narrowly survives a severe flood by teaming up with a sleepy capybara, a lemur obsessed with shiny objects, an overly friendly Labrador, and an enormous bird. The unlikely menagerie has no choice but to stay together on a rickety boat as they navigate the strange and rapidly changing new environment they find themselves in.

Combining beautiful animation with a captivating and stirring score, the world director Gints Zilbalodis has created is lush, intriguing and mesmerising. Adults and children alike will love both the drama and humour that stem from acute observations of real behaviour exhibited by each animal. Without dialogue, the animals must read and communicate with each other via body language alone as they are forced to navigate the stark differences between their species. Anyone who has spent time with any of these species will appreciate the excellent attention to detail brought to the depictions of each animal’s behaviour. In particular, our protagonist is often rubbed the wrong way by their shipmates’ quirks – unsurprising behaviour from a cat – but as they learn to trust, friendship and emotional investment grows. The animals even learn new skills from each other, strengthening their chances of survival. The implication could be that us humans could certainly learn a thing or two from animals ourselves.

Engaging and suspenseful, Flow is a love letter to the natural world that not only holds a mirror up to our own conflicted reality, and particularly the human tendency to focus on individualism, but also beautifully examines the complex inner lives of animals. A highly impressive second feature from a promising director with a very distinctive voice and vision. — Louise Adams