When a stray cat in the woods is hit by a great flood, he makes his way aboard a boat together with several other animals, including a lemur who has a basket of ”valuables”.

Entirely made on a free, open-source graphics software tool, this is a remarkable animated film that lacks dialogue and depicts its animals realistically, not as Disney characters with human traits. Inspired by a short that Gints Zilbalodis made in 2012, it’s a simple but gripping tale about animals coming together to escape one crisis after another.

Obviously a bit rough around the edges, but it does stand out.

2024-Latvia-France-Belgium. Animated. 85 min. Color. Direction, Cinematography, Editing, Art Direction: Gints Zilbalodis. Screenplay: Gints Zilbalodis, Matiss Kaza. Music: Rihards Zalupe, Gints Zilbalodis. 

Trivia: Original title: Straume.

Golden Globe: Best Animated Motion Picture. European Film Awards: Best Animated Feature Film. 

Last word: “Because of the budget, many of the animators were very young and straight out of school. The whole team was young, and mostly only the department heads had much experience. But it was kind of nice for me because I maybe felt less intimidated than I would have trying to tell veteran industry pros what to do. It also felt like an advantage because the young artists had great energy and worked like they had something to prove. This was a big project for all of us.” (Zilbalodis, Variety)