Director Shahram Mokri described Fish & Cat as an attempt to translate the feeling of an M.C. Escher painting into film. Ostensibly the film is based on an urban legend about a restaurant shut down in the late 90s for serving up cooked human meat, and the extended sequences of shady cooks stalking the forest and harassing college students who have set up camp to hold a kite flying competition would suggest that, but then Fish & Cat deviates, flowing back and forth between different characters and their inner monologues, with the narrative repeating through cycles of time and space. Currently, Fish & Cat holds the record for the longest film shot in one take, and it certainly is a technical achievement, nothing short of impressive. The aesthetics, with the brooding, muted colors, and synthesizer soundtrack, the occasional sounds of knives being sharpened, or what sound like screams blending in with the action, are immersive. And, yet, something is missing here. Mokri's film is like a old-fashioned simple machine, or automaton, but it is as if there is no real life or energy to it, no emotional thrust. There are moments of humor and horror, profound revelations, but it all feels too orchestrated. One never really forgets the gimmick behind it all.
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