Recently, I joined an independent film production team,
which means I’ve been able to watch the filmmaking process up close like never before.
While studying, I also learned something new — even legendary directors like Christopher Nolan and Bong Joon-ho started out making short films.
(Guess I’ll have to do a review on that sometime too!)
Since then, I’ve been checking out all kinds of short films.
Last time, we looked at Sony’s brilliant short on mental health,
The Spider Within: A Spider-Verse Story.
Today, we’re diving into another short that made waves in 3D animation —
the piece that laid the foundation for Gints Zilbalodis – Flow (2024):
Aqua (2012).
Contents
- About the Work
- Style & Visuals
- Story Structure Breakdown
- Message & My Personal Thoughts
- Analysis of Memorable Scenes
- Recommended Reads
🎬 About the Work
Aqua (2012) is a short film made by Gints Zilbalodis when he was still in high school.
It’s the root of Flow (2024), which became the first Oscar-winning film from Latvia.
“A short film I made in highschool which later was adapted into Flow.”
— Gints Zilbalodis, YouTube – Aqua, 2012
The director himself has said that Flow is an adaptation of Aqua.
📚 The story is about a cat trapped in water, facing and overcoming its fears.
🎬 The runtime is about 7 minutes and 30 seconds.
🎨 Style & Visuals
The film’s outstanding use of color, layout, and well-matched sound make it hard to believe it was made by a high school student.
It creates a dreamy, subtle mood by skillfully using light and focus.
The point of view follows the cat sinking in the water, matching the rising and falling waves.
With various camera techniques—high and low angles, different distances to the subject—the film smoothly moves between underwater, above water, and the sky.
Scenes that simply yet effectively show the passage of time are also a highlight.
Like many of Gints Zilbalodis’ works, there’s no dialogue, but his signature style fills the screen with amazing direction and sound design.
🏛️ Story Structure Breakdown
I was really surprised by the ending, where the scene showing the flood at the beginning and the close-up of the rushing water at the end form a perfect bookend.
The reason is not just that it’s a neat bookend, but because the story structure feels like it’s coming full circle.
The cat leaves its home because of the danger of the water, and when it reaches a new land to escape, that place also gets flooded, ending the story.
This felt like the trials in life that come around in cycles.
oking at the picture above, the story moves to the right in chronological order and meets back at the starting point.
Isn’t this more than just a coincidence? Could it be the director’s intention?
💡 Flow Seen Through a 3-Act Structure and Key Events
Act 1: Setup and Incoming Crisis
The stranded cat, a drifting boat, and the new environment encountered on the boat.
Key events:
- Cat trapped in a world covered by water
- A drifting boat appears from somewhere
- The cat climbs onto the boat and shows curiosity about the underwater world
Act 2: Conflict and Attempted Adaptation
Isolation and rescue underwater, and courageously exploring the underwater world again.
Key events:
- The cat jumps into the water but sinks deep, struggling in an unfamiliar environment
- A white bird appears and rescues the cat
- The cat bravely jumps back into the sea, adapts, and explores the mysterious underwater world
Act 3: Overcoming and New Crisis
Reaching safe land and seeming to overcome the crisis, but then floodwaters rush in from the opposite side, forcing the cat to run away again, implying new uncertainty.
Key events:
- Passage of time and arrival at safe land
- Floodwaters rising again
- The cat runs away to escape the water once more
📝 Message & Personal Thoughts
Aqua carries the calm vibe of a gentle documentary, showing how a peaceful cat faces the challenge of a natural disaster.
The cat does everything it can to survive — climbing to the top of a tree, then onto a drifting boat.
It almost drowns while trying to catch fish underwater, but is saved by a large bird.
Though it nearly dies, the cat’s curiosity and courage push it to keep diving underwater and get used to catching fish.
It peacefully roams the fantastic underwater world for a while, but when the flood returns, it runs to survive — and that’s how the story ends.
Watching the film with no dialogue but calm, tension-filled background sounds, you really get drawn into the cat’s life.
Seeing how the cat accepts disaster and calm moments in daily life, always doing its best in each moment, made me reflect on life itself.
Accepting what we can’t control — nature, other people, fate — with calmness.
Exploring with curiosity and courage.
Doing our best in the here and now.
Standing firm even when new challenges come.
Through Aqua, Gints Zilbalodis seems to ask: “How will you live your life?”
How did this make you feel?
🎥 Analysis of Memorable Scenes
Gints Zilbalodis showed great directing skills even back in high school.
I’m really curious about what kind of childhood he had.
There are so many amazing scenes, but I picked out a few.
00:08 – A scene that uses focus in and out just right to show the cat’s lazy and peaceful daily life.
00:38 – The tense situation builds up with music, accompanied by a 360-degree spin.
Intermittent speed lines maximize the visual effect.
Simple but really efficient and cool! 👍
01:45 – After the storm passes, the calm morning shows the cat waking up.
The camera captures water dripping from above and an extreme close-up of the cat’s eyes, letting the audience really feel the cat’s perspective. 👑
02:15 – I’ve never seen camera work like this before.
Starting with a zoom-out, then rotating right, and back left, the camera moves in a fascinating path.
But there’s no sense of awkwardness or jarring cuts, and it perfectly conveys the feeling of deep underwater.
It feels like the camera itself is flowing underwater — like the “Flow” itself… intentional, it seems… ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
02:39 – A stunning shot capturing the subject at the water’s edge.
Flow also uses a similar composition, which I found very impressive.
03:06 – The big bird appears in the moment of crisis, with a cut that feels like it’s jumping as it rises into the sky — a charming animation touch. 💙💙💙
06:24 – (Water <-> Land) & (Unstable place <-> Stable place)
As the environment changes, the cat, the boat, the fish, and the bird each react differently.
A powerful scene. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
06:42 – The highlight of the film.
07:10 – The cat looks back and, just like in the opening scene, the flooding water appears again—an elegant ending showing the cycle of struggle and calm. 🏆
This concludes my review of Aqua, Latvia’s first Oscar-winning film and the original inspiration for the 2024 Best Feature Animation winner.
If you enjoyed Flow, I highly recommend checking this out.
That’s all for now—thanks for reading!
Recommended Reads
