Fish & Cat

Fish & Cat (Mahi va Gorbeh), 2013

Iran | Blu-ray, Color, 134’ | Persian
Director: Shahram Mokri

“The Blair Witch Project meets Kiarostami-Makhmalbaf in this thrilling film” is how !f Istanbul described Fish & Cat, which won the !f Inspired competition. Consisting of a 134-minute single take and inspired by a real-life case of a restaurant serving human meat, this Iranian film begins like an ordinary horror movie in which a group of university students go camping near the restaurant. While presenting a mood reminiscent of the Blair Witch Project, the film also gives us human portraits in the tradition of Kiarostami and Makhmalba, playing with cinema, reality, and time. The film touches on the dreadful, dramatic, and emotional as well as on elements of the supernatural, which gives it a unique poetic quality. This surprising and unpredictable film full of tension disrupts the discourse that “there is nothing new in cinema.”