The Rabbi's Cat
Based on the bestselling graphic novel, this wild and vivid ride follows a rabbi and his talking cat as they navigate the cultural crossroads of 1930s North Africa.
Movies on the Map
Algeria in the 1930s is an intersection of Jewish, Arab and French culture. A cat belonging to a widowed rabbi and his beautiful daughter, Zlabya, eats the family parrot and miraculously gains the ability to speak. Along with the power of speech comes unparalleled sardonic wit, and the cat—and filmmaker Sfar—spare no group or individual as they skewer faith, tradition and authority in a provocative exploration of (among other things) God, lust, death, phrenology, religious intolerance, interspecies love and the search for truth.
Rich with the colors, textures, flavors and music of Mediterranean Africa, the film embarks on a cross-continental adventure from the tiled terraces, fountains, quays and cafes of colonial Algiers to Maghrebi tent camps, dusty trading outposts and deep blue Saharan nights in search of a lost Ethiopian city.
D: Joann Sfar & Antoine Delesvaux, France, subtitled, 2011, 1h29m
Part of the Movies on the Map series, stories that will immerse you in cultures and natural wonders from every continent.
Movies on the Map
Movies on the Map
It's a wild and vivid ride and a spirited reminder of the kinship between Jewish and Arab cultural traditions.
The LA Times
An absorbing, nuanced, and vividly animated tale of adventure, ambivalent morality, colonial injustice, talking animals, and the vagaries of religious zeal and colonialism.
Village Voice
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