No dialogue

When the world is devastated by a great flood, a group of animals, led by a cat, find shelter in a boat. To survive, they have to learn to live together and to trust and help each other despite their differences. This is a journey full of obstacles, but also of beauty and tenderness, offering a much-needed reflection on the importance of community in building new worlds. An Annecy award-winning film that does not impose human qualities on animals, but simply lets them be what they are: animals.

Written by: Gints Zilbalodis, Matīss Kaža
Director of Animation: Léo Silly-Pélissier
Editing: Gints Zilbalodis
Music Composers: Gints Zilbalodis, Rihards Zaļupe
Sound Design: Gurwal Coïc-Gallas
Producers: Matīss Kaža, Gints Zilbalodis, Ron Dyens, Gregory Zalcman

Director's Statement

I feel like it can go deeper in the subconscious than live action could. Animation is not as affected by cultural or language barriers as live action is. It can be much more universal and primal. But at the same time, I don't think it should be seen as something different. It's just another storytelling technique. I felt that Flow’s story could only be done in animation because of the animals and the camera moves I had in mind. I hope that it is not going to be perceived only as an animated film because it's very much influenced by live action movies. So Flow is like all my live action and animated movies influences mixed together.

Not everything is explained in the film. We don't really explain why the flood comes, what it means, or the signification of the statues that the characters discover. There are some hints here and there, why they might be there, but it's not really explained. I'm not interested in making a puzzle that the audience has to solve. Flow is not about finding out the meaning, it's about embracing the whole experience.

The title reflects the road movie aspect of the film, since the action is set mostly in this boat moving forwards constantly. The road movie aspect is important, because we get to discover all these different environments, and because there are no dialogues.

We wanted to avoid showing animals behaving like humans or have them think the way humans do. The characters' goals are primal and very simple, which is necessary, since we do not use dialogues. But although the characters have simple goals, it does not mean they are less deep, less significant. In other words, it's simple, not simplistic. We want to use these basic ideas and have enough time to fully explore them. We do not rush over them.

Awards and festivals (selection):
- Animated Feature Film Nomination, European Film Awards 2024
- Jury Award, Audience Award, Gan Foundation Award for Distribution,
Special Prize for Best Original Music, Annecy IAFF 2024
- Grand Prize for Future Animation, Ottawa IAF 2024
- Grand Prize, Animation Is Film Festival, USA, 2024
- Best International Animated Film, Guadalajara IFF, 2024
- Peace Prize, Festival du nouveau cinéma Montreal, 2024
- Baltic Film Competition, Tallinn Black Nights FF 2024
- Toronto IFF 2024
- Melbourne IFF 2024
- Cannes - Un Certain Regard 2024
- BFI London FF 2024