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"A highly original, compelling feature, filmed in one long, bravura shot establishing Shahram Mokri as a distinctive talent." – Variety
An unsettling score, an experimental approach that follows a dozen characters without cutting, and a jet-black sense of humour … These are just a few of the remarkable elements that have seen Shahram Mokri's Fish & Cat garner multiple awards overseas, including the Venice Film Festival Special Orizzonti Award for Innovative Content, paying tribute to the film's unique composition: a daring exercise in perpetual motion, it is shot in one 134-minute, nonlinear take by A Separation (MIFF 2011) cinematographer Mahmoud Kalari.
Inspired by genre films, Mokri focuses on a group of students camped by a lakeside forest for a kite-flying festival, choreographing a cryptic time warp as the camera weaves seamlessly between characters and perspectives, building an atmosphere of ominous tension. Just what is going on in this forest, and what are the men in the nearby hut cooking?
"It's a tour de force … and as quietly political as it is brazenly cinematic." – New York Times