Gints Zilbalodis’ animated feature Flow follows a group of animals who find shelter on a boat after a great flood destroys civilisation. The picture, which took part also in the main competition of Annecy***, bowed in the Un Certain Regard strand of the Cannes Film Festival. Previously, only one Latvian feature had been screened at the Croisette – Laila Pakalniņa’s The Shoe in 1998. We sat down with Zilbalodis to dig deep into his creative process, his personal development as animator and the pros of shaping stories without dialogue.
Could you tell us about the process of creating this threatened world, whose dreamy landscapes make you forget about danger?
It all starts with the flood. Since our protag is a cat, it just makes sense for it to be afraid of water. I didn’t want the world to be too threatening, because that’d be too boring. We do see the outcome of a catastrophe, but there’re many different places we visit, and we see these environments in a way we’re not used to. Flow is a loose adaptation of my 2012 short Aqua. This time, however, the focus is on the group dynamic. Here, we see a character who is used to be very independent and alone, but now has to work with others and accept their presence. The conflict comes naturally but we didn’t want to have any antagonists. The different animals trigger conflicts, but in a way they’re all relatable.
You’re not showing anthropomorphic animals. You let them be animals and react the way animals do.
Our animators watched a lot of videos online. Luckily, there’s a huge library of references! I wanted to look at real animals and use their real sounds, not those made by people. It felt natural and right to do it that way. Also, it was important to craft a very immersive environment, adding almost a documentary feel to the movie. It feels like there’s a real person holding the camera and reacting to what’s happening. Sometimes, animated films can feel too distant, too cold and too ‘precise,’ so we wanted to keep some imperfections.
In what ways using Blender helped crafting your film?
We used it to create everything, since the movie had to be in 3D. We were trying to make the film’s ‘optically rich,’ but at the same time visually pleasant and with no frills. That’s the great thing of animation; everything is deliberate.
How do you see your development as an animator since your first 2010 short Rush?
I found my own technique slowly by making a bunch of shorts, and I probably won’t do a hand-drawn animation again. The reason I switched to 3D is because I’m interested in moving the camera around and making these very long takes without any editing. I’d just create the environment in 3D and explore it like a DoP, and look around to find ideas. In a way, it’s a more spontaneous approach, closer to live-action filmmaking.
There is one recurring choice in your films, and that’s the absence of dialogue.
I’ve never had any dialogue in my films, because my strength lies in telling stories visually. I made a film about a character stranded alone on an island so that he doesn’t need to speak with anyone. This time, it’s all about animals. My favourite films are the ones that are ‘visually driven.
What’s been the greatest challenge you faced?
I guess the scriptwriting [phase], because we had many limitations and no dialogue. We had to come up with ways to convey ideas and turn them into actions. I wrote many drafts until we locked this version. It was also difficult to manage the team. I used to work alone, and this time I had more than 50 people on board. It’s been a new experience. When I had an idea while I was work alone, I didn’t need to explain anything to anyone. I could just make it. Now, I had to find ways to communicate my ideas but, eventually, I managed.
Read the full interview on the first issue of EAJ.
***UPDATE: Flow has won four awards at the Annecy Film Festival 2024: the Jury Award, the Audience Award, the Gan Foundation Award for Distribution, and the Best Original Music Award for a Feature Film.
