By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 3.5 cats
Director: Shahram Mokri
Original language title: Mahi va gorbeh
Country: iran
Year: 2014
Running time: 134
IMDB: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt3257072/combined
Kyle says: “FISH & CAT is writer/director Shahram Mokri’s second feature film. Ostensibly a horror film involving an out-of-the-way restaurant in Iran closed for serving ‘non-animal meat’ also known as a cannibal establishment, the proprietors cross paths with a group of young people gathering for an annual kite festival on the banks of a lake. The one act of butchery is described but never seen, although that act is always in the audience’s mind because of a reeking oozing pinkish cloth bag carried around by one of the perpetrators. The self-absorbed young people who have gathered for the kite event discuss fractured relationships, uncanny events, the meaning of life, current whereabouts of others, and availability of various tools.
“This is yet another example of an interesting film undercut by an excessive even self-indulgent running time (cutting half an hour would considerably enhance both artistry and popularity), and the young people are mostly a dull bunch, leaving the acting burden to the meat specialists. There are however two urgent reasons to experience FISH & CAT. The first is the outrageous but successful formal experiment with the film shot in one continuous take, occasionally creating a palindromic structure wherein characters and events fold back in on what has just taken place at a different place on the road or in the woods. The second is the dazzling final sequence, reminiscent of director Emir Kusturica, in which a band performs the title song while the kites evoke exquisite butterflies and birds flying in the gray skies overhead. The recurrent appearance of a pair of one-armed twins coming toward us from the woods reminded me of the butchered twins in THE SHINING (1980) and the deconstructionist documentary on the movie called ROOM 237 (2012). 3.5 cats
“Seen Friday, March 28, 2014, New Directors/New Films at the Walter Reade Theater, Film Society of Lincoln Center, New York.”