Nominated for Discovery Award for Best Debut Feature, Best Debut Director and Best Performance in a Debut
Q&A with Director Rozalia Szeleczki
Fáni is trapped in a world of her own imagination: ever since a traumatic childhood experience, she has pictured the death of each man she finds attractive. To avoid these fantasies, she chooses to be alone. But one day a new neighbour arrives, whose talking black cat starts courting her.
From its very first moments – a tracking shot across the cast and crew’s names engraved on headstones in a Budapest cemetery – we know we’re in for a quirky treat.
Thirty-year-old architect Fáni (Franciska Töröcsik), daughter of a long-dead rock star (Tibor Kiss), is haunted by visions of him and of the imminent violent deaths of all the men she’s attracted to – including her handsome new colleague/neighbour, Mihály (Csaba Polgár). But then, Mihály’s cat Smoothie (voiced with verve by Márton Patkós) begins eloquently courting her: ‘I was born in a poor family,’ he says, ‘one of six twins.’ Against her natural impulses, Fáni starts to succumb to Smoothie’s advances, and her horrifying visions stop. But how far is she willing to take the ‘relationship’, and to what effect on her friends, family and career?
Twists and turns abound thanks to a dangerously addictive cat food supplied by Fáni’s best friend, influencer Zsanett (Adél Csobot); magical interventions by Fáni’s drunken occultist mother (Dorottya Udvaros); and Smoothie’s ambition to become a gangsta rapper, even though only Fáni can hear his voice.
First-time feature director Rozália Szeleczki manages to straddle the romance and horror genres seamlessly and to great comic effect. A gloriously weird magical rom-com in the proud tradition of Mannequin and All of Me.
Review by Daniel MacCannell
