'Flow' looks at dwindling supply of water

By Kenneth Turan | Los Angeles Times Staff Writer

October 9, 2008

As if we didn't have enough to worry about, the quietly apocalyptic Flow makes a good case that what's going on with our planet's water supply should make you very, very afraid. Any film that begins with a bleak W.H. Auden quote ("Thousands have lived without love, not one without water") is not going to be a ray of sunshine in anyone's life.

Made over a five-year period by director Irena Salina, who traveled the world and talked to an impressive list of experts, Flow (which also stands for "For Love of Water") is a smartly done, involving look at a number of interrelated water issues. For one thing, it seems that the planet is simply running out of water, which, given our dependence on it, is not a good thing. "We have wars going on over oil," one of the film's authorities says. "Water can be oil all over again."

Also a problem is that we are terminally polluting what water we have. Flow opens with a shot of India's Ganges, kind of the poster image for polluted water, and it tells us that water-borne diseases kill more people annually than either AIDS or wars.

One of Flow's most intriguing segments concerns bottled water, the alternative of choice for society's most prosperous elements but a liquid that turns out to be less regulated and possibly less safe than what comes through the tap. In addition, we're told, society could provide pure water for everyone on the planet for what we pay for the bottled kind. It's something to think about, as is this entire film.

Unrated. Time 84 minutes.