Robot Dreams vs Flow

Robot Dreams

Berger's film has no dialogue for its entire 102-minute runtime. You learn about the friendship between Dog and Robot only through pictures, movement and music. I feel like having no words makes their bond easier to read.

Flow

Flow has no dialogue, no human characters and no explanatory text for its entire 85-minute runtime. The story is told only through how the animals behave, what you notice in the environment and the physical rules of a flooded world.

Robot Dreams

The film is set in a cartoon 1980s New York of diners and roller discos, where every character is an animal who acts like a person. Berger uses that world to show pure emotion. Because it's this stylized, you feel the dog's loneliness and the robot's isolation first and follow the plot second.

Flow

Zilbalodis uses animation to show how different species communicate through their bodies. You see the cat's flattened ears, the capybara's stillness and the dog's frantic energy. You can read what each animal feels, across species lines that live action could not cross.

Robot Dreams

Berger stays with Robot on the beach as the seasons change, from summer to autumn to winter to spring. The scenes run long on purpose. You feel time passing and you feel the waiting, and that becomes the main emotion of the film.

Flow

Zilbalodis holds on the animals' faces, the surface of the water and the slow progress of the boat. He is patient, and he asks you to treat stillness as information. The slow pace shows you how much you can see when you pay attention.