Gints Zilbalodis and His Fairytale-Meets-Reality Universe

Just a year ago, it was hard to imagine that people around the world would watch a Latvian animated film in cinemas and publish rave reviews about it; that in Mexico it will be shown on a square that can accommodate two hundred thousand (!) people, and that in front of the Latvian National Museum of Art there will be a huge line of people waiting to see the country’s first Oscar and Golden Globe statuettes.

But let’s return to 2010. At least 14 years before a cat, a capybara, a lemur, a dog and a secretary bird conquered the hearts of people around the world. Gints Zilbalodis is a sixteen-year-old student at the Janis Rozentāls Riga Art School and creates his first animated film “Rush”. It’s a little over a minute long. Two years later, in 2012, he creates another short film, the seven-minute “Aqua”. Gints works on it for two years.

Then there were another seven years of training, five more short films, and the hard work resulted in his first full-length animated film “Away”. Gints’ short films were receiving attention, but it could not be compared to the success of “Away”. After the film’s victory at the Annecy festival (the most prestigious festival for animators in the world), journalists asked Zilbalodis about the thorny path of a man of art in general and working on this cartoon in particular. He answered: “Once I set a goal, it is usually difficult to change my mind.” It seems that this approach brought the young Latvian director to the stage of the Oscar, Golden Globe, and tens of other festivals around the world.

This is my story and my film 

“A deaf musician tries to adapt to a new silent life”, “a boy tries to escape a strange island but is pursued by the Dark Spirit”, “a cat wakes up surrounded by water and learns to adapt to unfamiliar conditions.” These are some descriptions of Gints Zilbalodis’ films. He always puts his main characters into difficult life situations, but at the same time gives them qualities with which these situations will be overcomed at the end. 

Lonely islands, post-apocalyptic world — Gints likes metaphorical locations for his films. And they, for sure, add even more attraction and escapism to the shots.

Overcoming — this is one word to describe what each of his main characters goes through as the plot develops. The director admits that with his films he always wants to explore something that he himself is going through. And usually these are not the experiences of the past, but something that, during the creation of the film, is still burning brightly inside. This is one of the reasons why, before working on “Flow”, he was creating all his films alone. That way he did not have to explain the idea to anyone, putting feelings into words; he did not even need a script — he was just depicting his very own feelings.

I have a feeling of want I’m trying to reach, but it is very hard to explain. The same with music — you either feel it or you don’t

By the way, he also creates the music for most of his works himself. Sometimes, the music even serves as an inspiration for the scenes, so the music appears first and only then do scenes emerge. This is exactly how the most powerful and touching scene in “Flow” was created: a bird and a cat in a swirl of stars.

Gints calls his music simple, saying that it is in simplicity that effectiveness lies; he admits that his lack of musical education and the “not knowing how to do it right” gives him great freedom and creativity. 

Let us remind you that all of the director’s films so far have been silent. One can only imagine the level of responsibility in creating music for a film without words, as it’s also accepted that with words it is easier to convey meanings. Gints has broken this “accepted” by proving that with movement and sound he is able to tell even more. We’ll say that the music in his works really gets to the heart, so the words would actually be superfluous. 

“Talking background” and the curious camera effect

“The process felt more like working on a live-action film than animation,” this is what Zilbalodis said about working on the short film “Inaudible”,’ but that’s how he creates all his works. Gints works with animation films, but you get the feeling that they are shot on camera, making you even want to say “what a great camerawork”.

I wanted to have imperfections with the camera, so there was a hand-held moment. Sometimes the camera is slightly delayed, as if a real person is holding it and just trying to get the frame right

Sometimes this virtual camera becomes a character itself — it shows curiosity and constantly looks around. This is one of Gints’ innovations, something that, according to him, “hasn’t been studied much in animation yet.” Great directors such as Alfonso Cuaron, Alfred Hitchcock and Stanley Kubrick inspire Zilbalodis for this kind of camera use. They also inspire him to create absolutely wonderful long shots (also not very common for animation) which “create a sense of real time, a sense that you are really inside that world and that you are seeing the truth.” Gints’s works are truly immersive. The director says that he might even make his own full-length live-action  film one day. This, by the way, is one of the reasons why he calls himself a director and not an animator.

Another feature of Gints Zilbalodis’s films is backgrounds. In addition to their incredible beauty, they are not merely decorations. The background, in parallel with what is happening in the foreground, also tells a story and helps to reveal the emotions of the characters. So next time you watch his works, pay more attention to the background.

No age restrictions

Who does Gints Zilbalodis film for? We would say that for everyone, but he says that he does it, first of all, for himself; that he films what he himself would be interested in watching. The target audience is everyone, as his films will find a response in everyone’s soul. But maybe adult people will receive a little bit more of such responses.

It is interesting that about sixty years ago, the Latvian animator Arnolds Burovs had a similar attitude to the craft. While others were creating entertaining cartoons for children, he worked on more serious, profound things. It was important for him to understand the world and soul of his main characters as he, first of all, filmed about his world and his soul — just like Zilbalodis does now.

It’s hard to convince people that there are different types of animation, that animation is not just for kids

Do what you’re afraid of

Gints started working in a team only while working on “Flow”. In 2019, he created his own small Dream Well animation studio (quite impressive considering the fact that before that he did not have any studio experience). It was here that “Flow” was created. In his Oscar speech, the director said that, just like the cat in “Flow”, he had to learn to trust the team he worked with. Gints is used to “doing what you’re afraid of”. Having come up with the animated film in which most of the actions take place in water (even though water and animals seem to be the most difficult things to animate), he proved it once again. He endows his main characters with the same quality as they are, we already understood, a reflection of him and his inner world. So next time you feel like you lose your inner bravery, consider (re)watching one of the director’s works. They are healing.