It was when presenting the video game ICO in 2001 when the Japanese developer Fumito Ueda coined a fortunate concept to explain his proposal: “Design by subtraction”. It perfectly defined the brief plot of ICO but also what surrounded him, as an experience without beads or explanations, in the flesh. Ueda allowed the player to theorize as much as they wanted about the themes or setting of the story, as long as they did not lose sight of a focus that was simply moving. It was the style that followed in later masterpieces by the likes of Shadow of the Colossus and The Last Guardianand the one who will continue in his recently announced new work, Project Robot.
Just like Ueda video games, flow presents us with an enigmatic world with vestiges of a human civilization that has disappeared, and which, unfortunately for the surviving beings (all animals) is facing another catastrophe. The point of view rests on a cat whose only motivation is to escape from this catastrophe. And the echoes of Ueda’s work—in the visual aspect, in the design philosophy—are so evident that director Gints Zilbalodis admits to admiring his work. “I am a big fan of Fumito Ueda’s work, and he is a great influence on me.”
The Latvian artist (Riga, 1994) maintains that in flow everything is defined by the perspective of the protagonist cat. “When you tell stories without dialogue you need to be clear about the goal and understand what the character wants. With the cat what would happen in real life happens: in the face of danger it would automatically want to climb a tree, and here it tries to escape the flood by reaching those towers that it sees on the horizon.” These towers can be seen at all times from the flooded world that the cat crosses in a boat, referring us to another key video game from the school of subtraction design such as Journeypublished in 2012.
In this case it was a mountain and, as in flowthe central character had to coordinate with an unexpected ally to reach her. “Video games are part of my life just like cinema and music are, and all these different influences can converge into something that seems new,” explains Zilbalodis in conversation with elDiario.es. “The main thing is to find a visual language with which to understand what is happening, an environmental narrative where the story is told through clues with which to ask ourselves what has happened to humans.” This visual language is what makes flow such a special film. A work, of course, historic for animated cinema.
Rethinking a language
The appearance of flow It doesn’t have much to do with the commercial animated films that come out of the US. It uses three dimensions, except that it disdains the detail of textures or a calculated study of notions of lighting. It is something that can be attributed to the low budget since Zilbalodis has developed it entirely with a software free called Blender —“I don’t recommend any independent artist animate water, it’s a pain in the ass,” he laments—and yet it unexpectedly fits a recent trend in the industry.
Productions like Ninja Turtles, Puss in Boots: The Last Wish or the saga of Spiderverse They have been using the NPR style from Hollywood (“non-photorealistic rendering”, non-photorealistic rendering), which represents a vigorous return to traditional 2D combining it with digital sophistication. It is something that to some extent subscribes flowwith a more disheveled and humble image, and something that Zilbalodis considers logical. “The same thing is happening in animation as when photography was invented and painters had to take more abstract directions,” he points out. “It was when impressionism or expressionism emerged. 3D has reached total realism, there is no way to go further than there, and we must take a different direction.”
What direction did Zilbalodis take? “You can be more expressive with a look more stylized. You can intensify the colors, you can find more striking shapes, and the images have to be more emotional,” he explains, adding that as basic as the look It is the grammar, the visualization of animated action. “In flow For example, I wanted to emphasize the camera movement. I wanted it to feel like a real person holding a camera and making mistakes, like not reacting in time to record something. “This way it would be more immersive and would give it a special dimension, using the language of real-action cinema.” And, why not, the documentary.
“Going in these simultaneous directions allows it to appear realistic as well as stylized, clearly seeing the brushstrokes in the textures, and that we end up finding a balance: an immersive as well as a painterly experience.” Zilbalodis bets everything on the image and recognizes that “many of his favorite films are only driven by music and movement.” “I wanted to take that mechanism as far as possible so that the film could also work globally, without the need for translation.” flow It is in effect a silent film from beginning to end, except for the cat’s meows and the noises of the other animals present.
“Telling a story without dialogue may be more accepted within animation,” he maintains. “We usually see it in the shorts, but last year without going any further we had Robot Dreams. I think that in flow “You can soon forget that they are not talking, as we treat their animal language as if they were real voices.” Zilbalodis is proud that the animals in his film behave like animals. “They don’t tell jokes, they don’t walk upright. And so it is more intense for the audience, because they can think about their pets and see everything from their point of view.”
This rejection of the clichés of commercial animation also involves conflict and narrative rhythm: “There are no antagonists, we only know what the cat knows. Their conflict is how to deal with nature,” says Zilbalodis. “In that sense we wanted moments of tranquility throughout the plot, because the action would be more exciting. This dynamic moves away from Western animation, where something is always happening, and fits more with the work of Studio Ghibli, full of shots where the plot does not progress. They simply suggest you stay in that moment, and reflect.”
The paths it opens flow
flow It is a work so extraordinary that it forces us to consider it as something similar to a miracle, and to assume that it has come out of nowhere to illuminate the future of the medium with avant-garde impetus. Only that’s not entirely the case, because Gilbalodis has been trying to carry out his vision for more than ten years. Two previous shorts, Aqua and Prioritiesare clear argumentative precedents of flow —in the first we have another cat lost in the ocean, while in the second a human and a dog try to survive after their plane crashes—, and in 2017 he released his first feature film.
Its title was Awayand its argument as minimalist as that of flow: a boy wanting to escape from a dark giant. Only there is a key difference between all this initial work and the film at hand, and that is that before Zilbalodis was totally alone. He was in charge of the animation, the script, the music, everything. This is his explanation: “Being an entertainer means starting at the bottom of the ladder, and gradually growing up and showing what you are capable of so that maybe, when you are 40 or 50, you will get the opportunity to direct. But I wanted to do that first and I didn’t want to work in a studio. If you work in a studio you have to specialize in some field. That’s not my thing.”
“I thought I could do the basics of all the different tasks without being an expert in anything, and on the other hand that’s what I think a director should be: someone who knows what everyone does without being an expert in any department. ”Zilbalodis continues. “My first full length, Awayit was like an unofficial school where I wanted to do everything, although I hoped later I would have the opportunity to collaborate with someone. In flow “I am still very involved in all parts of the work, but it has been a totally collaborative process.” flowhis second feature, is a production that involves more workers, promoted with state support in Latvia and capital from France and Belgium.
The beautiful thing, in this regard, is that flow revolves around a solitary being (the cat) who learns to work as a team (with all the animals of this new Noah’s Ark) to survive. “The plot is a metaphor for what it was like to make the movie,” Zilbalodis admits. “Although I didn’t know it beforehand, of course, I discovered it while we were making the movie. Writing the script, perhaps I was anticipating some conflicts, but the actual process of working with the team was much more harmonious, and we were very lucky that there were no unexpected catastrophes,” he jokes.
Zilbalodis and his people have finally reached those towers, and now it’s time to ask what lies behind them. flow It has won the Golden Globe for Best Animated Film and is nominated for an Oscar. Evidently it has been an earthquake for the cinematography of a country where, beyond names like Signe Baumane (My problems with marriage), there is hardly a lively industry as such. “We are all very excited,” explains Zilbalodis because, in addition to the awards, “Flow “It has been a great success in Latvian cinemas.” “In most of the world, independent animation is not the stuff of blockbusterbut we have shown that there is a large audience for this.”
“My hope is that soon we will see more animated films from places where there is no industry thanks to free tools like Blender, and that the major international awards will equitably recognize independent animation,” concludes Zilbalodis. “Now we have a studio in Latvia and we want to continue working like this, independently. We will take advantage of this recognition to, in the future, do something much bigger and riskier.”
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