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••• The International Writers Magazine - Movie Review

FLOW • Sam Hawksmoor An exquisite animated experience to take your breath away

I’m a bit late to the party to celebrate FLOW - the Oscar winning animated movie directed by the Latvian Gints Zibalodis. It has taken almost a year to reach British cinemas and I didn’t want to watch it on a TV screen.

The end result is simply breathtaking. Each frame is a work of art and the combination of music by Zibalodis and Rihards Zajupe is simply beautiful. (Album available)

What a pleasure it is to watch a movie without dialogue (except from some very realistic cat meows from time to time.) The story of a cat, at first abandoned by its owner (a rather eccentric cat loving artist and sculpturer) is suddenly confronted by a whole host of other animals fleeing in terror. The cat suddenly realizes what they are running from when a tsunami of water engulfs him and sends him spinning off at speed, struggling to get to the surface and take a breath.

It’s a strange apocalypse. All of mankind seems to have been washed away and left only the animals behind. The cat spots a boat floating upright and swims towards it. Cat’s hate water but will swim like a dog if they have to. Inside the boat is a dog, the same Labrador puppy that bugged him in the first few minutes of the movie and want to be friends. Dogs and cats are not friends but Cat sort of tolerates the puppy and then the other creatures that climb aboard.

It’s a survival adventure. These animals do not talk. This is not a Disney movie. It isn’t ‘cute’ and a six-year-old might find seeing all these animals in danger pretty worrying. But it is a fable about creatures, that should they have to, animals can cooperate.

The visual beauty of this new flooded world is stunning, the whale surfacing and sliding back down under again a visual treat. We see everything through cat’s and other animals’ eyes and marvel of their acceptance of their changed circumstances.

Their jeopardy is real and their instincts for survival strong. Some visual treats of Cat learning to fish are just one of many and learning to share his catch is wonderful.

If you can see FLOW on a big screen, take the chance. You do not need to take a child with you, you will become a child full of wonder again as you watch.

Easily the best film made this century so far and it is a total emotional experience.
Go see it!
© Sam Hawksmoor - April 13th 2025



Extract from Sam Hawksmoor's latest novel - it begins with a kidnapping ...

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