The Cats of Gokogu Shrine (Gokogu no neko)

Wednesday 15 April at 7.30pm

Kazuhiro Soda | Japan | 2024 | 119 mins | Exempt

A community of cats has set up home around a Shinto shrine in Okayama. Local residents take care of them…

In the picturesque small coastal town of Ushimado in Japan’s Okayama Prefecture, a Shinto shrine has become home to an ever-growing colony of cats. Enter Japanese documentarian Kazuhiro Soda, renowned for his self-imposed ‘10 Commandments of Observational Documentary,’ which include doing no prior research, having no pre-set themes or goals, and shooting long takes without scripts, narration, or superimposed titles—all while filming everything himself. In his tenth documentary, Soda casts a calm and meditative eye over the shrine, its feline inhabitants, and their human neighbours. Set over the course of a year, he captures the lives of the cats as they adapt to the seasons, steal fish from local fishermen and interact with local residents, some of whom see the cats as a nuisance, while others view them as a potential tourist attraction for the town. The result is a charming and thoughtful portrait of the delicate balance between cats and humans in an ever-evolving world set over the backdrop of an area in regional Japan.

“Soon there might not be any cats left at Gokogu Shrine, but the lives they have touched remain, and Soda’s sparing, sweet film is a gorgeous tribute to the independent felines, and the kind people who lived in harmony with them.” – Hannah Strong, Little White Lies