None of the characters in Latvian animator Gints Zilbalodis’s poignant, vividly realized Flow utter a single word. They’re all animals, which normally wouldn’t keep them from talking in an animated feature, but so much of what makes Flow so rewarding and unexpected is how Zilbalodis resists the temptation to anthropomorphize his CGI critters.
The film expertly immerses us in its narrative, which follows the journey of a black cat in a human-less world devastated by a cataclysmic flood. Fearful and suspicious, the cat eventually boards a sailboat as water swallows the landscape, falling in with other animals whose personalities are just as easy to decipher: a chilled-out capybara, a hoarding lemur, an excitable Labrador retriever, and a high-strung secretarybird. We’re never at a loss to know how the cat feels, as Zilbalodis finds multitudes in the position of its ears, the wideness of its pupils, and the skittering of its legs.
In some of the film’s more intense sequences, the camera glides alongside the cat in breathless, unbroken shots as the animal flees a pack of dogs or nearly drowns beneath waves. Though Flow, which is movingly attuned to its characters’ primal instincts, is largely suitable for family viewing, its sense of peril is all the more acute because of how realistic the creatures seem, tapping into the distress we’re gripped by when we watch struggling animals.
The film’s presentation will invite video game comparisons, whether in its cutscene-like action scenes or its semi-realistic 3D environments bathed in heavy sunlight. BlueTwelve Studio’s indie hit Stray, about a cat with a robot companion traversing a post-apocalyptic world, will be the most obvious point of comparison. Yet, Flow doesn’t feel like most games because its images speak for themselves, with the lack of exposition (like, say, graffiti or diaries revealing what happened to humanity) allowing the film to maintain a brisk, compelling pace.
Except perhaps in the broadest strokes about cooperation and coexistence, Flow isn’t nakedly allegorical. Here, we watch and wonder at things like the strange, monolithic animal statues or an ethereal beam of light before the cat presses onward. Such images gain beauty and mystery because the film lacks pat scenes of characters idly speculating about the pre-apocalyptic world or despairing over what will become of them. In the face of what may very well be inevitable doom, the animals can only move forward and adapt—if they can. Flow is never held back by its lack of words because, through sheer skill and craft, it transcends the very need for them.
Image/Sound
Criterion’s 4K transfer perfectly renders every nuance in the animals’ facial and body language. The blues and greens of the color palette are positively radiant, while the black form of the central cat never looks smudged or blotchy despite the absence of finer fur animation. The audio track is similarly flawless, evenly distributing the ambient sounds of wind, choppy surf, and animal calls across all channels. It’s particularly great at rendering the film’s softer (and easily missable) sounds, like the faint creak of the wood of the boat as it moves through water.
Extras
Criterion has assembled an impressive set of bonus features for this release. First and foremost is the inclusion of Gints Zilbalodis’s 2019 debut feature, Away, in a 4K transfer. Animated entirely by the director, the film—a gene splice of Playdead’s Limbo and Antoine de Saint-Exupéry’s The Little Prince—is a beautiful, compelling exercise in minimalism.
Zilbalodis also contributes a commentary track for Flow in which he provides ample practical and thematic reasons for certain animation choices. He does so amid wry jokes about things like the flood of opening production company logos inflating the film’s runtime and being drawn into debates about being a cat or dog person during press tours.
Two of Zilbalodis’s early shorts, “Aqua” and “Priorities,” are included and come with dedicated commentaries from the director. A making-of documentary for Latvian TV details Flow’s production and celebrates its success. The disc is rounded out by an unused-shot reel (with commentary by Zilbalodis) and some trailers and teasers, and in the accompanying booklet essay, critic Nicolas Rapold provides an overview of Zilbalodis’s career and connects the visual language of Flow to other movies, animated and live-action, centered around animals.
Overall
Gints Zilbalodis’s critical and commercial darling gets instantly enshrined in the Criterion Collection with a flawless transfer and a bevy of bonus features.
Score:
Director: Gints Zilbalodis Screenwriter: Gints Zilbalodis, Matīss Kaža Distributor: The Criterion Collection Running Time: 85 min Rating: NR Year: 2024 Release Date: September 23, 2025 Buy: Video
If you can, please consider supporting Slant Magazine.
Since 2001, we’ve brought you uncompromising, candid takes on the world of film, music, television, video games, theater, and more. Independently owned and operated publications like Slant have been hit hard in recent years, but we’re committed to keeping our content free and accessible—meaning no paywalls or fees.
If you like what we do, please consider subscribing to our Patreon or making a donation.