‘Flow’ dazzles without dialogue

Latvian animator Gints Zilbalodis’s second feature invites viewers into a dreamlike journey of resilience.

By James Verniere/Boston Movie News

Latvian Oscar selection “Flow” is an achingly beautiful and poetic depiction of a second biblical flood seen through the bulging, orange eyes of a charcoal gray cat whose name we do not know because the CG film has no dialogue (or humans, for that matter). Running from a pack of hungry dogs along a river in an idyllic wood, the cat and everything else are submerged by a sudden tsunami-like flood.

It’s like that horrifying moment from the J. A. Bayona thriller “The Impossible” (2012), and another climate-change cautionary tale for sure. The cat makes the acquaintance of a big, tan Labrador and finds higher ground and refuge in a house whose owner was a sculptor who carved wooden cats (Do you see a pattern emerging?). But when the house is also submerged, the cat finds new refuge on an abandoned sailboat with its sail still deployed. Eventually, the cat will enjoy the company of a greedy, very smart ring-tailed lemur, a primate that collects things made of glass or metal in a big reed basket, the semi-friendly dog, a somewhat dull-witted, big-toothed capybara, and big, long-legged white bird with yellow limbs, perhaps a great egret, with a broken wing that learns how to steer the boat.

It’s like “Lifeboat” (1944) with animals, although one could argue that Hitchcock also made his characters into animals. Autodidact Zilbalodis, barely out of his 20s, directed, shot, designed, edited, and co-wrote the music. He’s like the Prince of animation. I have not seen his award-winning first feature, “Away,” but I know it is also the story of a wild journey, and I will seek it out. Zilbalodis’ landscapes are beautiful, razor-sharp mixes of greenery and rocks. His creatures have a slightly smoky aura as if they are constantly changing. The bird gets into a fight with a fellow bird over the cat. The bird’s flock cruelly punishes the outlier. The film’s camera moves nimbly, steadily, and with great speed, like a whirling dance at times, and slips underwater in several dream-like scenes.

The cat learns to fish for his and his companions’ supper. Was that Nemo? The film’s towering pillars, which are all that are left after the water rises to the mountains (we don’t know where we are), suggest a Mayan influence. The cat is like Odysseus before it, supremely wary and discreet. It is also a virtual jukebox of feline noises: meows, purrs, chirps, trills, etc. (all the animal sounds are real), expressing fear, happiness, or a desire to be followed. In awe, the cat spies a giant creature, a leviathan, leaping jubilantly out of the drink, once again monarch of a water planet. A human hand sticks out of the depths. It is the last part of a sunken giant statue, and it seems to ask: Why? When the cat is frightened, it climbs the boat’s mast and sits on top. It also slides down the single orange sail like a kitty Douglas Fairbanks. In the heights, the animals sail into a stone city reminiscent of the legendary Shangri-La. The sail gets caught in the limbs of a tree. They encounter a group of other lemurs wearing little hats and crowns.

A mysterious climax appears to involve an ancient launchpad to the sky. The lemur appears to meditate. It’s like Noah’s Ark without Noah or his troublesome children. Zilbalodis does a lot with a little. A mirror gives the lemur a chance to preen like Charlie Chaplin. We appear to reach the top of the world. In a scene recalling “The Perils of Pauline,” the cat’s friends need salvation pronto, a universal and primal thing. A co-production of France, Latvia, and Belgium, “Flow” is the first film the director has made with other people. Despite (or perhaps because of) its lack of dialogue, I think children will be mesmerized. Its visuals appear handmade. It’s an animated film shot deliberately like a live-action film, and you just dive in. Can they get the big-eyed cat toy out in time for Christmas?

‘Flow’

Rating: PG for peril and thematic elements

Cast: Non-speaking animal caricatures

Director: Gints Zilbalodis

Writer: Zilbalodis

Running time: 1 hour, 24 minutes

Where to Watch: AMC Boston Common, AMC Methuen, and other suburban theaters

Grade: A-