Away

Written, animated, and scored by director Gints Zilbalodis (whose Flow won the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature) in a remarkable feat of solo creation, Away takes viewers on a magical journey through a perilous landscape in which the greatest danger is one’s own. After his plane crashes on an island a teenage boy must outrun a giant that chases him across its strangely beautiful landscapes: a forbidden oasis, a mirror lake, a dream well, and a cloud harbor. Along the way, he and a small yellow bird help each other as they encounter vertiginous gorges, powerful geysers, and treacherous waterfalls—obstacles that force the pair to call upon untapped reserves of bravery and invention. Infusing each environment with surreal details and the boy’s quest with a mesmerizing dream logic, Zilbalodis fashions an epic of universal resonance—an adventure as inspiring to the spirit as it is dazzling to the senses.