It seems that in nearly every country the animated-cat-film canon goes irrationally hard. The U.S. kicked off with silent film star Felix the Cat in the 1920s and led to the family classic Aristocats; France gave us a cat burglar in A Cat in Paris; and even Hayao Miyazaki blessed the world with Animorph-esque adventure The Cat Returns – and those are just off the dome. This weekend, AFS serves up a hidden feline classic from Germany in Felidae, a neo-noir animated feature that shares its title with the scientific name for cats. With a theme song by Boy George, this adaptation of Turkish author Akif Pirinçci’s 1989 novel follows Francis, the pet of a romance writer who discovers a cat death cult living in his owner’s attic, leading him down a sordid path riddled with cat sex, murder, and mad scientists. Imagine the classic Nineties 2D animation style of Don Bluth (Anastasia, Thumbelina) set to a Cronenberg plot. Purr! – Lina Fisher
Nov. 22-24
