Starring: Cheddar and Ushimoto

Directed by: Vesela Kazakova, Mina Mileva

Cat Out of the Bag Alert! This review contains some spoilers for this film!

Synopsis: Based on true events. Irina (Irina Atanasova) is a Bulgarian living in a South London flat who gets into conflict with her neighbors over a seemingly abandoned cat.

Featured Feline: If one believed the description of this film from Amazon Prime you would be expecting a feel good movie about the rescue of a cat from the walls of a tenement building under construction. This film is nothing of the sort. In fact it is a realistic and unblinking look at life in a council block and the tensions between the flat owners and renters living there. The trouble starts when Irina happens to see a ginger tabby cat outside her flat.

Her brother Vladimir (Angel Genov) wants to feed the cat but Irina is against it at first.

With the weather getting colder, Irina feels sorry for the animal and lets the cat inside.

Irina’s son Jojo (Orlin Asenov) takes immediately to the cat and names him Goldie.

Even though Irina finds out that the cat may belong to someone else in the building she keeps him and the family grows fond of Goldie.

Irina is furious at Vladimir when he takes Goldie outside with Jojo. She is likely concerned that the owners might see them with their cat.

Eventually the neighbors do find out and are furious, standing outside their door and demanding their cat be returned. The cat belongs to a girl named Phoebe (Kadisha Gee Kamara) who calls the cat Boo. Irina argues that the cat was wandering around the building for some time before they took him in. In the meantime, the cat is terrified, standing on top of the boiler in the kitchen as the people argue outside.

They search the apartment for the cat but have no luck, so the neighbor’s pit bull is brought in and starts barking towards the top of the boiler. It is then that Irina discovers a deep hole in the wall which the cat has crawled into. She tries to pull the cat out with no luck.

Some time passes as everyone waits for the cat to come out. Finally Irina is so concerned the cat might be starving she calls Animal Control and screams at them when they won’t send someone out because of the snow. When Irina walks into the kitchen she finds Vladamir holding the struggling cat and telling her to block the whole. Irina takes Boo back to his original family.

The story of the cat is actually just a metaphor for the main plot, that of immigrants living in a Brexit England trying to make their lives work.

The animal trainers for the film were John Harty, Jamie Gladstone and Devora Tancheva.

Final Mewsings: It should always be about what’s best for the cat!

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