CAT IN THE WALL
/Bulgaria/UK/France/
Original title: CAT IN THE WALL
French title: Le Chat dans le Mur
Bulgarian title: Котка в стената
Year of production: 2019
92 min
Colour
DCP: 1.85-ratio-25 fps
1998/1080 resolution
ISAN number: 0000-0005-6C2D-0000-C-0000-0000-1
Logline
A true story of how a cat, stuck in a wall, changes the lives of aspirational migrants, benefit fraudsters and gentrified Brexiteers.
Synopsis:
This terrific comedy-drama is set on a southeast London council estate, which is riven by social and economic divisions and threatened by the all-consuming force of gentrification. Irina, a Bulgarian woman lives there with her small son and her brother. The lift serves as a toilet, the multi-cultural residents exchange shouts rather than pleasantries, and an expensive refurbishment is undesired but must be paid for. And in the midst of this: an apparently owner-less cat, that has had enough of the heated atmosphere, barricades itself ‘in the wall’, requiring the residents to collaborate.
“Cat in the Wall” is an arresting critique of society; a whirlpool of emotions from despair to joie de vivre conveyed by strongly defined characters. This heart-warming tale, based on true events, is this year’s equivalent of director Ken Loach’s, I Daniel Blake.
Directors’ statement
The animator Mina Mileva and the actress Vesela Kazakova, and their company activist38, are well known
in the European film industry for the social and political focus in their work. Their films have prestigious selections
and awards and are shown on ARTE, HBO, Al Jazeera and other TV networks. They have directed and produced subversive documentaries, which, according to Variety act as “rare gadflies whose sting is causing a massive allergic reaction on the thin skin of Bulgaria’s filmmaking elite”. Vesela and Mina suffered institutional harassment in Bulgaria and a local MP from the former Communist Party nicknamed them the ‘Demonic Duo’.
As their fiction debut “CAT IN THE WALL” travels to festivals, their next project “Women do cry” has been awarded top prize at Trieste’s When East Meets West (WEMW) co-production market.
Co-producers:
Glasshead Ltd, an independent British TV and film company is acknowledged with a raft of awards including 2 BAFTAs.
Ici et Là Productions here and there geographically as much as editorially, develops, finances, produces and coproduces an eclectic line-up of original feature films.
Festivals: Locarno International Film Festival - World premiere - Main Competition; Sarajevo Film Festival - Regional premiere – Main Competition; Warsaw International Film Festival - EU premiere -Competition*; Golden rose, Bulgaria - First feature film Competition*,
