Sawt Falasteen - Cat tale 'Flow' goes from underdog to Oscar nominee

"Flow" has no dialogue and Gints Zilbalodis, who had a budget of $3.6 million, beat off giant animation studios to win a Golden Globe and now has two Oscar nominations.

"We thought the best case scenario would be that we would be selected in some of the festivals and have a nice festival run," Zilbalodis told AFP.

The 30-year-old sat down for an interview in London -- one of multiple stops on a whirlwind global tour -- ahead of the Academy Awards on Sunday.

"Flow" stands a double chance of winning as it is shortlisted in the best animated feature and the international film categories.

The film tells the story of a black cat who discovers that people have deserted their dwelling and that water is approaching the nearby meadows.

Confronted with a flood, the feline protagonist reluctantly boards a sailboat in the company of animals including a buoyant golden retriever and an unruffled capybara.

"Zilbalodis largely avoids the sort of whimsy and sentimentality that might plague, say, a Disney movie with the same premise," said the New York Times review which typifies reaction around the world.

"The animals act like real animals, not like cartoons or humans, and that restraint gives their adventure an authenticity that, in moments of both delight and peril, makes the emotion that much more powerful," it added.

For Latvia, the nominations are historic: no film from this Baltic country of 1.8 million people has ever contended for an Oscar.

The international recognition has triggered "Flow-mania" at home.

Film-themed street art is appearing around Riga while Latvians have queued to take selfies with the Golden Globe trophy which has been put on display in the national museum.

More than 320,000 people saw "Flow" in Latvian cinemas, the country's film centre told AFP, making it the most-viewed film in Latvian history, surpassing "Avatar" and "Titanic".

- 'Story of my experience' -

"Maybe we're just in the right place at the right time," Zilbalodis said modestly.

But he has a theory about why the film has won over audiences and critics.

It is about "people embracing different types of films, and not just watching the big franchises".

The film's seemingly simple plot carries deeper meaning for Zilbalodis.

"This is a story about a character who starts out being very independent, and then has to learn how to trust others and how to collaborate," he said.

"It's kind of a story of my experience," added Zilbalodis, who made his first feature animation, "Away", on his own. He said the process of creating "Flow" was also one of adapting to teamwork.

The team chose to focus on animals and mimic their real-life behaviour, a decision that led them to watch cat videos online and take trips to the zoo as part of their research.

- Capybara tickling -

Zilbalodis also opted for using the animals' natural sounds, which created an unexpected dilemma.

"We recorded real cats and dogs and everything, and that worked pretty well. But the only character that kind of needed some extra assistance was the capybara," an imperturbable member of the cat's crew.

The film's sound designer tried to record it in a zoo -- but discovered capybaras are normally silent.

"A zookeeper had to actually go in and tickle the capybara," Zilbalodis recounted, "which is a very nice job," he added, chuckling.

The result was, however, a high-pitched sound that the "Flow" team judged incompatible with the laid-back capybara.

"After some searching, we settled on a voice of a baby camel."

For Zilbalodis, making unexpected adjustments and testing different solutions for the film was one of the advantages of working in a small, independent studio.

"If you're doing something huge, it's like changing course of a very big ship, which can be very slow and expensive," Zilbalodis said.

His next film will have human characters and, crucially, dialogue -- a first for him.

"But what is important is that we stay working independently, and I want to continue working in our studio in Latvia," he stressed.

L.Hussein--SF-PST