This exquisitely animated, dialogue-free adventure unfolds in an abandoned, flood-prone landscape. Flow follows a group of animals, led by a wary and anti-social feline, as they attempt to keep their heads above the mounting water. The Latvian director of 2019’s Away, Gints Zilbalodis, skilfully takes the helm.

The animals in question are a labrador, capybara, secretary bird and ring-tailed lemur, as well as the aforementioned cat. Each one is given a distinct and plausible personality: the labrador is excitable, the capybara lazy, the secretary bird haughty, while the lemur is fiercely protective over its treasured stash of human stuff. The film makes for a fascinating contrast to recent release The Wild Robot, a similarly charming, significantly more commercial tale which also took place in animal-dominated environs but was hampered by some clumsily relayed lessons. Here, events are more open to interpretation, but Flow is so pleasant to watch and easy to follow that it should still boast a wide appeal.

Rendered entirely on the free, open-source software Blender, Flow evolved from Zilbalodis’ 2012 short Aqua and took five-and-a-half years to complete. The astonishingly beautiful results have been rewarded with nominations for Best Animated Feature and Best International Feature at this year’s Academy Awards. The absence of humans is ominous and potentially apocalyptic, and yet there’s something pleasingly sanguine about this quietly moving story of co-operation and survival. Without uttering a word, Flow speaks powerfully about the precarious environmental situation we find ourselves in, and the wonder and defiance of the natural world.

Flow is in cinemas from Friday 21 March.