Away is a computer-animated film from Latvia that was released in 2019. It was written and directed by Gints Zilbalodis, who also animated the entire film by himself and composed the music for it.
A young boy finds himself in a strange land with a shadowy creature that’s after him. After finding a temporary refuge where he finds a motorcycle, a backpack with some supplies, and an injured yellow bird that he befriends, the boy embarks on a journey to evade the dark monster and discover what’s on the other side of the land he’s on.
Tropes in Away:
- Ambiguous Ending: When the boy finally reaches the Port Town, the film deliberately leaves his fate unresolved - will he find acceptance or continue his journey?
- A Boy and His X: The relationship between the boy and the yellow bird evolves from caretaker/patient to mutual protectors.
- Cats Are Lazy: While at Dream Well, the protagonist meets a group of black cats that do nothing but sleep and drink water from the well whenever a waterspout comes out of it.
- Dark Is Evil: The shadowy creature that’s pursuing the boy is the main antagonist of the film and any animal that it comes into contact with ends up dead.
- Die or Fly: When a fox closes in, the bird takes off, flying for the first time to escape the hunt.
- Enemy to All Living Things: Not only do animals end up dead after being inside the dark spirit for a period of time, but simply being near it is enough to kill those animals, as shown with the flock of white birds that the yellow bird was flying with suddenly falling from the sky.
- Heartbeat Soundtrack: During the climax, the boy's ascends toward a blinding, ethereal light is underscored by a pulsing heartbeat sound.
- Kid Hero: The protagonist is a young boy who explores a strange land inhabited by various animals while avoiding a dark creature that’s able to kill him.
- Kids Driving Cars: The boy finds a motorcycle that becomes his main method of transportation across the land after spending a bit of time getting used to riding it.
- Minimalism: The film tells its straightforward, yet abstract story with only three major characters, no dialogue, and a simplistic art style.
- No Escape but Down: Fleeing a thundering avalanche of snow, the boy takes a leap into the water below.
- Ominous Walk: The shadow creature stalks through the foggy landscape with deliberate, menacing movements.
- Onscreen Chapter Titles: The movie is broken up into four chapters that are named after important locations that the boy visits.
- Parachute in a Tree: The film opens with the child protagonist being stuck in a tree with his parachute open. A later dream he has during the film shows that he parachuted out of the plane he was on moments before it crashed.
- Placid Plane of Ankle-Deep Water: Mirror Lake is a body of water that’s shallow enough for elephants to walk through and motorcycles to drive on.
- Plot Armor: While the white birds mysteriously fall from the sky, the yellow bird survives, suggesting its special nature and importance to the story's progression.
- Rope Bridge: A rotting wooden bridge stretches precariously across a vast, fog-shrouded chasm; after a harrowing crossing, the boy destroys it with a big rock, hoping to thwart the shadow creature's unyielding chase.
- Silence Is Golden: There’s no dialogue throughout the movie to emphasize its atmospheric tone.
- Silent Credits: The soundtrack cuts out when the end credits start rolling.
- Super-Persistent Predator: The shadow creature relentlessly pursues the boy across multiple environments, representing fears or traumas that cannot be outrun, only confronted.
- Tastes Like Friendship: The Boy earns the bird's trust by giving it fruit.
- Travel Montage: A sequence showing the boy and bird journeying through various landscapes, conveying the passage of time and distance in their quest.
- Uniformity Exception: The yellow bird's vibrant coloring makes it stand out among the flock of white birds.