De noche los gatos son pardos

Valentin is shooting a queerly gaudy piece of heritage fetish erotica. Then he’s suddenly gone, and the cops are called in. A crew member from Mexico has seen him in a dream lying dead in a forest, so it’s okay that the police start investigating the case as a murder mystery. Especially as Valentin’s corpse is found where the Mexican envisioned him to be, only to vanish again. What’s left for the poor cops other than pretend there’s work to do, because the show must go on? Meanwhile in Mexico, or on the Other Side…

If you think that sounds weird, De noche los gatos son pardos is actually much weirder: dreamy, impulsive (one could also say ‘coherently illogical’), shamelessly artsy, and heaven bent on surprising its viewers. Every character is named after its actor. The team embarked on this trip sans screenplay, trusting in their shared improvisation skills; all they knew is that the film’s main characters would change several times, and therefore its tone, which includes everything from zombie flick to magic realism – think Potocki’s Saragossa Manuscript or the Arabian Nights’ Entertainment. Or don’t think, at least not too much, but listen and see and marvel, and get lost in this forest of pleasures and delights!

– Olaf Möller

The screening on 1 February will be preceded by a video essay by Dennis Vetter, as part of the Critics’ Choice programme.

Trailer

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