Away - Vom Finden des Glücks

This is a very, very good movie. I didn't want to watch it at first because it's animated and there's no real dialogue. It didn't take more than 5 minutes for me to get sucked in, and I'm glad I did. This movie is a gem!

If you aren't familiar with Gints Zibalodis's art style, I can very much see others get taken aback by how the film appears. Because it doesn't look like anything else you've seen before, unless you played a couple indie developed videogames. Incredible work from being the only dude who worked on it.

Maybe the next Angel's Egg, except more pleasant of an experience. Away wears mood, serenity, and potential symbolism all on its sleeves. Not in the pretentious sense though, moreso achieves having the audience remember an artists name.

Hypnotic from when it starts to where it ends, doesn't waste any potential with a strong hour an fifteen minute runtime. Every second feels deserved thanks to the stunning visuals, and breathtaking score.

A boy finds himself tangled in a paracute in a forest. He gets down. He discovers a hulking, black figure that will follow him, a little yellow bird that will accompany him, and a motorcycle he will ride across an island which seems populated only by cats, bird, and tortoises across an island that clearly was once inhabited but now has been abandoned by people.

Who is he and how did he get there? We don't know and are never told. There is clearly a spiritual component to this journey, but that is never clarified; we simply watch him make the journey. Clearly we, as the audience, are to assign meaning to these actions, his origins, these clearly physical beings with murky, metaphoric meanings.

I'm sure Gints Zilbalodis knows at some level. This Latvian film maker did everything in this animated feature but help on the accounting and be the press attache in France. But since he didn't say clearly he wants us to make up our own minds about this journey.

So many themes to reflect upon depending on your perspectives but we can all recognise the race, the travel, the journey, with its fables, foes and friendships - who needs Pixar!

I would recommend this to everyone. Contains valuable insights on life which really resonate... how to conquer our fears, to push ourselves or allow our souls to wither away by just fearing all the negative outcomes; how helping others can end up saving us. Also loved the animation style and music. Picture worth a thousand words done right!