Featuring no dialogue, the film follows a cat, dog, capybara, and ring-tailed lemur trying to survive as the water level slowly rises.

Flow debuted at the Un Certain Regard section of the 2024 Cannes Film Festival, where it received critical praise.

A dark grey[3] cat wanders through a forest when a pack of dogs arrive by the river to catch fish.

As the rising water completely submerges the statue, the cat jumps into an approaching sailboat with a capybara aboard.

The next morning, as the boat sails through a partially submerged forest, the cat goes overboard while trying to avoid a white secretarybird, but it begins to sink underwater.

As the water level continues to rise, the capybara invites a ring-tailed lemur to hop aboard with its basket of trinkets.

The secretarybird that first encountered the cat pleads with the leader to spare its life, only to lose in a duel and have its wing injured before the flock abandons it.

After learning from the capybara, the cat improves its ability to swim to catch fish on its own and feed the rest of the crew.

As the boat sails through the stone pillars during a heavy storm, the secretarybird leaves, having regained its ability to fly.

[5] The film features no dialogue and Zilbalodis stated that he was inspired by Jacques Tati, as well as the anime series Future Boy Conan.

[9] Zilbalodis based the cat and the dog on his real-life pets, while the capybara, ring-tailed lemur, and secretarybird were studied from zoos.

[11] The film was produced with financial support from the National Film Centre of Latvia, the State Culture Capital Foundation of Latvia, the Centre national du cinéma et de l'image animée, ARTE France, Eurimages, RTBF, and the Belgian Tax Shelter.

[13][6][14][15] The film's soundtrack was composed by Zilbalodis and Rihards Zaļupe, and was released on streaming media platforms by Milan Records on 1 November 2024.

[16][17] All tracks are written by Gints Zilbalodis and Rihards Zaļupe.A board game based on the film was released in January 2025.

[23] Flow was screened in competition at the 2024 Melbourne International Film Festival, where it won the Special Jury Award.

[24] Flow premiered at the Splendid Palace [lv] cinema in Riga, Latvia, on 28 August 2024 and was released nationwide the following day by Baltic Content Media.

"[40] Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned the film a score of 86 out of 100, based on 23 critics, indicating "universal acclaim".

It was initially installed outside of the Freedom Monument, and is planned to be moved to the Town Hall Square in April 2025.