One non-studio animated feature gaining attention and admiration this year is FLOW from Latvian filmmaker Gints Zilbalodis. It’s an immersive, dialogue-free journey lead by a cat in a world suddenly overrun by a massive flood. Humans seem to have vanished, leaving behind animals to fend for themselves during this climate disaster. The saucer-eyed black cat encounters other beasts doing their best, such as a capybara, a lemur, a towering secretary bird, and a pack of dogs. These animals inhabit a world that’s been compared to the transparently luminous realms of ruins and nature in the classic computer game Myst, but their movements often track closely with those of actual animals (especially the fear responses of the cat).
In advance of the film’s nationwide release on December 6, I talked with Zilbalodis about the inspirations and behavioral models for his character designs as well as the film’s environments.
Was the inspiration for the film more environmental, or mythological, like Noah’s Ark?
Neither of those, really. It's a personal story first for me. This is my first film that I've made with a team and a proper budget. Before, I was working by myself. I thought it would be a good idea to tell a story about these feelings and experiences I would have when I would work with a team, because that's something that I was a bit anxious about. I thought I could tell a story about a character who has to learn how to trust others and how to work together. And I thought that the cat would be the perfect character for this journey, because cats are very independent.
I actually made a short film about a cat who's afraid of water many years ago. The focus of that film was more on fear in general. But when I decided to adapt it into this feature, I wanted to focus more on the cat's fear of relationships with these other characters. But then these allegories or interpretations emerged organically. I thought the flood would be a great source of conflict, because that's something we don't need to explain to anyone: that cats don't like water. And I just thought it would be interesting to see this flooded world, unlike the short film I'd done, which was set in this vast open ocean. I thought it would be more interesting to have a bigger variety of landscapes so that we can tell the story through the environment. But I was aware of how it could be seen as a story about climate change or natural disaster.
Still from FLOW. Courtesy of Sideshow and Janus Films.
Was the character design and movement of the animals inspired by actual animals?
In all the films I've done so far, I have not used dialogue. I thought that having these animals behave like [real] animals would allow me to tell the film more visually. I also thought that we've seen this type of film where the animals are basically humans. They just look like animals, but they behave like humans, and they tell jokes or walk on two legs. There are some good examples of that, but I'm tired of seeing that over and over. And I feel like having the animals behave in a more grounded way makes the story more engaging and emotional as well because then the stakes feel bigger, and everything seems bigger because we're seeing it through the cat's point of view. And also they're funny! We don't need to exaggerate the animals or have them tell jokes because they're funny and entertaining as they are.
So we studied real animals. We looked at a lot of references for pretty much every moment in the film. But we're not copying. We're interpreting real life. We're not interested in making a documentary, we're telling a story. So it's about finding that balance where it feels believable, where they feel like real animals, but also they can be expressive, and they can convey emotions. The motivations that drive these characters are quite instinctual, so I believe it's not too far of a stretch to imagine that animals would behave in this way. Of course we have to take some artistic liberties to tell the story.
What references specifically were you looking at? Nature documentary, YouTube videos, or what?
Well, I personally had cats and dogs growing up, so I knew their behavior quite well, for when I'm coming up with the story. And also with cats and dogs, I think we have to be more specific and really pay attention that we get them right because most people recognize them and their behavior. So they would feel if it's not right. With the other animals, like the lemur and the capybara and the bird, I think we have a little bit more freedom. So our animators would record their own pets, and of course there's an endless library of cat videos and dog videos on YouTube. We went to the zoo to study animals and film them, and we also recorded real animal voices for the sounds.
I especially like the choice of a capybara because capybaras do seem to be notably accepting of interspecies companionship. Was that part of the idea? It’s even become a bit of an internet meme.
Yeah, that was an inspiration. Because I thought, there are no antagonists in this film, they're all kind of flawed in their own way. That's what makes these characters interesting. They have conflicts between each of them and they have different ways of seeing life, but even throughout all of this conflict, there's one character that seems to be at peace, and that's the capybara. I thought it would be funny, but also profound: that even in the face of this craziness, there’s one character who was really peaceful. And I wish I could be like that.
Still from FLOW. Courtesy of Sideshow and Janus Films.
Generally I felt the movie took place in a kind of “animal” sense of time. What was the thinking behind that?
In terms of how the time is condensed or stretched? It wasn't a very conscious decision. It was that the whole story takes place in just a few days. And sometimes we need to have the time passing to allow these characters to have enough time to bond, because I think it wouldn't just happen immediately. And I guess when you are in an intense situation, your perception of time does change.
The secretary bird is another expressive choice of character.
In the short film I used a seagull, but in this version, we needed something that felt more majestic and imposing and had more of a presence. It also needed to be much bigger to be able to carry the cat at one point. So I discovered these secretary birds, which really fit.
How did you discover them?
I just like googled some birds. I don't know.
In terms of the animation style, why did you choose this particular brand of lucid, sort-of realism?
It was a long process to figure out what the film will feel and look like. I was interested in using the camera in a rather active way and following the characters very closely, so that it creates this immersive feeling. Because there's no dialogue, it leaves a void in storytelling, so I think we can be more expressive with everything else. The technique of the camera is influenced mostly by live-action films. I didn't want to use conventional coverage or close-ups or wide shots.
I also wasn't interested in creating something hyper-real, but in making it feel real rather than actually look real. I think that there's a case to be made that if you do a photo-realistic look, it's not as immersive and you can't express as much as when you abstract or stylize certain things. And there's also a lot of storytelling happening within the backgrounds. So we start with the character and then try and figure out what kind of environment would help us to convey this specific emotion.
Did any environments on Earth inspire the backgrounds?
We wanted to create that sense of adventure where you've never seen this before, so that you feel like you're experiencing it at the same time as the cat. So that's why we're not setting it in any specific place. And [that way] we're also not constrained by using real environments. My goal is to create something that feels timeless, so you don't see any modern-day buildings or technology. But yeah, there's some influences from European-looking architecture, from Southeast Asian architecture, or Mayan or Aztec-like temples and bigger structures. There're a few scenes which feel like Latvia. I didn't want it to feel repetitive or claustrophobic, so it’s elements from all over the world.
Still from FLOW. Courtesy of Sideshow and Janus Films.
Do visual ideas arise organically while making the film, outside of the script, and if so, what’s an example?
I make an animatic in 3D instead of storyboards, so we have this three-dimensional environment that’s a lot more detailed than most storyboards and I can even see lighting and some effects. The story is pretty much there in the script. But there were some changes, and making the animatic is like another draft of the script. Maybe 20% of the animatic is different from the script. After finishing writing the script, I never even read it. So when I'm visualizing these scenes, I'm kind of going based on my memory of the script. And I think this is important because it allows me to be kind of more loose and make discoveries.
One example is in the beginning of the film we see these statues of the cats, and that wasn't in the script. In the script we had one statue, a human statue, and when I was visualizing this scene I needed to find a way to convey how time passes when the flood rises. It happens over a long time, and I had this idea of an image in my mind where these different cats would be kind of sinking. And these are basically these cat statues, which allowed this sense of anxiety that I needed to convey. And that's like a visual kind of emotional feeling that I had when I was creating these images, but I couldn't imagine that when I was writing it.
What filmmakers have been important influences for you?
I'm more influenced by some live-action filmmakers than animation. With animation, I can clearly say that Miyazaki is an influence in terms of not following a straightforward story structure, and also having these moments of peace and quiet between the more intense parts to have that dynamic range within the tempo of the film, where there's excitement but also a moment of reflection. And also in not having antagonists: there are different characters who have different points of view, but you can kind of see that they're both right. And that makes them more
interesting rather than having just some evil character or good character, which I
don't feel like real-life really is. But there are also other filmmakers like Alfonso Cuarón, and Kurosawa, and Paul Thomas Anderson.
One question we haven’t covered: do you have cats?
Currently, I don't have a cat. But I had a cat growing up, which was the inspiration for this character.
What was the cat's name?
I had two, and maybe the one I had for a longer time was called Josephine.
Like Napoleon and Josephine?
Yeah. This cat [in FLOW] doesn't have really a name. It's not exactly my cat. We call them “the cat” and “the dog” so hopefully everyone can see their own cat and dog in these characters.
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