Flow (Straume) is an animated film without dialogue and without humans. Director Gints Zilbalodis and director of animation Léo Silly-Pélissier used 3D computer graphics to create a world of sympathetic animals.
The protagonist is Cat, a wide-eyed…cat. Cat had a comfortable home with a human woodworker who loved cats. But something terrible, apocalyptic, has happened, All humans are dead, and all that remains of their existence are the cities and things they have created. Chased by a pack of dogs, Cat escapes. A huge flood takes place, and everything Cat knows is covered in water. Desperate, Cat jumps onto a small sailboat and finds itself sharing quarters with Capybara, who spends most of its time sleeping. Soon they are joined by two other animals, big-eyed Lemur and Secretarybird. Secretarybird is a dominant character, a leader. Lemur is the most like a human in that he is obsessed by possessions. Eventually they are also joined by Dog, a Labrador who was part of the pack that earlier chased Cat, but who turns out to be friendly to its new non-dog companions.
The four friends of different species go through a variety of challenges and threats to their lives, but, except for Secretarybird, they survive as a team.
Animal lovers will find Flow a heartwarming story, unless you’re a fan of fish, whose purpose in the film is to be killed and eaten by the other animals.
For what it’s worth, lemurs and secretarybirds are native to Africa and capybaras to South America. Cats and dogs, of course, are international.
Flow is not the only noteworthy animated film entered in the International category. The Glassworker, Pakistan’s first hand-drawn animated film, deals with a more serious subject than Flow.
