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The Cats Of Gokogu Shrine

Directed by Kazuhiro Soda
2024
Japan, USA
119 minutes
All Ages
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An ancient Shinto shrine in a traditional Japanese village, home to dozens of street cats, is the timeless setting for this meditative observational documentary selected for Berlinale 2024.

Kazuhiro Soda’s latest film is set in the region where he also filmed Oyster Factory (SFF 2016) and Inland Sea (SFF 2018). It’s a mesmerizingly beautiful location for this tale of feline-human interaction. Tabbies, gingers, calicos, and other breeds lounge around the ‘Cat Shrine’ receiving food from visitors. The community is largely tolerant, but the volume of cats and people is beginning to intrude on the serenity of this spiritual environment and a new approach is needed. Soda lived on the island for years, and his intimate familiarity with the locality enables him to capture every detail of this world with humour and tenderness.

Limited seats are available for patrons requiring access for wheelchairs, low vision and hearing loop. Please contact our ticketing team directly on 1300 733 733 or tickets@sff.org.au to complete your booking.
Observing street cats is observing human society. And that is what made me curious, made me want to explore more … Following my ten commandments, I wouldn’t do any research or any preparation beforehand. So, everything was spontaneous. But I ended up observing the human society by observing the cats
Kazuhiro Soda, filmmaker

Special Guest

Kazuhiro Soda
Director
Kazuhiro Soda is an award-winning documentary filmmaker and author. His films have been invited to numerous international festivals, including his debut feature Campaign (2007), which premiered at the Berlinale Forum and won the Peabody Award in the United States. Soda was also a recipient of the Marek Nowicki Lifetime Achievement Prize.

Tickets

Fri 7 Jun
10am
State Theatre
Assisted Listening
Wheelchair
Subtitled
Past Event Cancel
Sat 8 Jun
4:30pm
Palace Central Cinemas - Cinema 1
Assisted Listening
Wheelchair
Subtitled
Past Event Cancel
Sun 9 Jun
1:15pm
Dendy Newtown - Cinema 1
Assisted Listening
Wheelchair
Subtitled
Past Event Cancel
Program Strand
International Documentaries
Original Title
Gokōgu no Neko
Year
2024
Classification
All Ages
Country
Japan, USA
Language
In Japanese with English subtitles
Director
Kazuhiro Soda
Producer
Kazuhiro Soda, Kiyoko Kashiwagi
Cinematographer
Kazuhiro Soda
Editor
Kazuhiro Soda
Premiere
Australian Premiere
Genre
Documentary, Asia, Religion & Belief, Animals & Creatures
Company Credits
Sales Agent: Asian Shadows
Official Website
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