Gints Zilbalodis made Away before Flow, and seeing the earlier film now in crisp 4K from The Criterion Collection makes the throughline clear. One person, a laptop, and a stubborn devotion to craft can yield something elegant enough to sit next to full studio work. The scale is smaller, the storytelling simpler, but the ambition is unmistakable.
Built in Maya and running a lean 75 minutes, Away feels more like a test of tools than Flow did, with fewer characters and a pared back narrative. That does not read as a knock. Zilbalodis is interested in how images carry meaning when dialogue does not. He keeps the premise simple and the world readable, then asks you to lean in.
An unnamed boy hangs from a tree in a parachute after a crash we never fully understand. He descends into a landscape of forests, deserts, and mountains, a pilgrimage that plays part survival tale and part fable. A huge shadow figure follows at a distance, sometimes menacing, sometimes almost guiding. The ambiguity gives the journey a faintly biblical charge.
The film’s strongest card is its look. Zilbalodis moves from biome to biome with confidence, letting color and light do most of the emotional work. Reflections ripple, sand hisses, and distant horizons lure the boy forward. Without dialogue, the visual cues and the score handle orientation and mood, and for long stretches that is enough to stay engaged.
The tradeoff is momentum. Away often feels like tailing a traveler from checkpoint to checkpoint rather than watching a story find shape. The mystery sustains curiosity, yet the destination matters less than the act of moving. That will frustrate anyone craving a clearer arc or a deeper bond with the protagonist. As a study in image making, though, it is focused and frequently striking.
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Taken as a solo endeavor, it is impressive. The film is modest in scope and slight in incident, but the design choices are purposeful and the craft is assured. Few mediums reward individual vision the way animation does when the technique and the taste align. Zilbalodis looks like a standard bearer for that next wave. Away is not as robust or as crowd friendly as Flow, yet it stands as a fascinating first statement that shows exactly why his later work connected.
Score: 6/10
Away (2019)
- Director: Gints Zilbalodis
- Genre: Adventure, Animation, Drama
- Runtime: 75 minutes
- Rated: NR
- Release Date: November 29, 2019
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