In the coming days at 6:00 PM, Kino Meduza in Opole invites you to experience Flow — an eye-watering film that will take you on an unforgettable adventure, much like the forces of nature that controle the future of its characters.
Gints Zilbalodis’ biggest success is the story of a cat who, during a flood, finds shelter on an old boat (soon joined by a dog, a lemur, a capybara, and a bird, all trying to survive in a new, unpredictable world). The premiere of this film took place at last year’s Cannes Festival, and its production took five and a half years. In order to accurately portray the various animal behaviors, they studied them in various zoos, including one in Japan. Seven hours of music were composed for the film, of which 50 minutes were used. Besides featuring the sound designer’s (Gurwal Coïc-Gallas) cat in the main role, other real animals were also used as voice actors, though not always playing their own species — for instance, a lowered tiger growl was used for the whale’s sound, and a small camel was used for the capybara’s.
The film not only became the highest-grossing film in Latvian box office history, but it also won the 2025 Golden Globe for Best Animated Film, and later the same award at the 97th Academy Awards. Flow made history as the first feature from continental Europe to win both of the statuettes — and without the support of any major distributor. The national pride in the success (including the existence of issued commemorative postage stamps) is even greater since it is the first motion picture from this Baltic country to receive a nomination and an award in one of the two biggest categories in cinema. It is also the biggest success of a production made using the free, open-source animation software Blender.
We asked the cinema’s employee for additional information:
“Latvian cinema is doing well. There was also one animated film – Jacob, Mimmi and the Talking Dogs. It was an earlier film for younger audiences. Flow is an animation. An animated film, however, does not mean it is a children’s film. It is not that children will be bored during this movie, but sometimes, for example, cinemas would play it in the morning, only for children’s screenings on weekends. We also play it in the evening because it’s a film for the whole family, for adults – it is a very serious animation, very emotional. That is why we warmly invite everyone. There are no restrictions here. There are no language issues because the film only has nature sounds. There is no dialogue track, no localization. As for the cats – there were four such big inflatable cats in Poland, really large ones, and one of them came to us from Wrocław. We also have a temporary home for kittens at the cinema. This situation was also the case with the film Robot Dreams, exactly this time last year. Robot Dreams was a film very much for adult viewers. A campaign was made for children, with some display walls, but the film was based on the director’s story – about a lost relationship, about loss. For some kids, it was still emotionally too heavy to bear. Even though it was a beautiful animation, beautifully made technically. Right now we also have the National Festival of Polish Animation O!PLA, and in the morning we have films for children, a competition called “Children Have a Voice”. In the evening, we have a competition for adults – of 18+ animation. Today (Friday, the 25th of April), for example, we have animated music videos and animated fables. Adult viewers vote for the best animated films there” – told us one of the staff, who also invited our readers to possibly check out Babygirl (2024, directed by Halina Reijn) – a thriller currently being shown at their venue (which, like the majority of imported adult-focused media released here in Poland, features the original, in this case English-language, audio feed and Polish subtitles).
According to comments on the theatre’s Facebook page, Flow will be screened until mid-May – which gives everyone, including students, enough time to catch this highly acclaimed movie on the big screen. We warmly invite you to take part in one of the upcoming screenings.
Text: Benjamin Golletz
Translation: OPOlink.pl
(photo: So FILMS)
