Flow - A wordless symphony

Flow

Animated / Drama / No Dialogue

85 mins

Prime Video

2024 was truly a breakthrough year for small studio and independent films. Flow, a Latvian, Belgian, and French co-production, won the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature Film.

Set in a world that feels similar to ours but in an undefined time, we meet a Grey Cat living alone in a house within a forest, where its creator seems to have crafted Cat statues and topiaries. The Cat keeps a low profile, staying carefully out of sight from its natural enemies — a pack of Dogs. However, disaster strikes, and the entire region is apocalyptically flooded.

The Cat, battling its fear of water, survives by finding a boat. Along the journey, it gradually picks up companions from other species: a Capybara, a Secretary Bird, a Lemur, and even a Golden Retriever — a former member of the pack that once hunted it. A mysterious, mutated whale also appears at crucial moments, almost like a divine intervention.

What follows is a beautiful journey of survival, overcoming fear, building trust, and forming unlikely friendships, all against the backdrop of a world heading toward a watery grave.

Over the years, we’ve been enchanted by how studios like Pixar and DreamWorks have used animation to tell superb stories where people, animals, insects, fish — even emotions — are given voices. Flow is a wonderful departure: a world where animals are just.. animals. Their emotions and thoughts are conveyed not through dialogue, but through purrs, barks, meows, and gestures.

The 20 min sequence where this unlikely kinship develops — despite their fears, insecurities, and the lack of a common language — is portrayed so beautifully. The innate traits of each species are captured with incredible detail: the Lemur’s hoarding instincts, the Cat’s love for fish and dislike for dogs and water, the Capybara's chill friendliness, and the Dog’s irresistible urge to play “catch” — all so wonderfully shown.

Director Gints Zilbalodis and producer/writer Matīss Kaža are now national heroes in Latvia. Full credit to the cinema industry and the Academy for recognizing their efforts in making this beautiful picture. In a world filled with complex issues, geopolitical tensions, and humanity often at a breaking point, Flow is a timely reminder that survival can forge the most unlikely of friendships — and that is a thought worth celebrating.