COVER N. 608 -  LATVIA 

Postmark: KC Dienvidkurzeme 01 LV-3416 08.07.2025

Posted on the 8th July; Received on the 14th July 2025

_________________________________________________________________________________

Films and comics have slowly been making their way into stamps. So much so that it is not uncommon to find sets or individual dedicated to them.

In the past, I would think, stamps on these themes would be issued more as celebratory issues, marking the anniversary of this or that special film or director while nowadays, they are  just another promotion vehicle for this or that film, this or that comics character.

The last cover I received from Latvia, bears on it one such stamp. Liels paldies, Artūrs.

I have been out of cinema halls for so long that I can't remember when. There's no way... I just can't stand someone eating popcorn and slurping coke by my side while I try to watch a movie on a large screen, in the darkened atmosphere of a movie theatre.

Also, long gone are the days when my daughters would nag me to take them to watch the latest Disney of Pixar blockbuster....

As such, I'm in no way familiar with the current film universe...

So I have to confess my ignorance regarding Flow, a film which I read was jointly produced by Latvia, France and Belgium concerns, and which was directed by a rather young Latvian film director and animator named Gints Zilbalodis, who won an Oscar with it in 2024 as well as a whole lot of other prizes, what speaks for itself, regarding the quality of  his work.

Flow, I read in Wikipedia,  "features no dialogue and follows a cat trying to survive along with other animals in a seemingly post-apocalyptic world as the water level dramatically rises".

Of note is also the fact that the film, which took four years to complete, was created in open source software, another reminder of the power that is freely available today to anyone endowed with  creativity and the knowledge.

The 2,54€ stamp on the cover illustrated with Flow, the cat hero of Zilbalodis'  film, was issued on 27FEB2025

The postmark ahild from the Municipality of Dienvidkurzeme, on the southwest coast of the country.