A THRILLER WITH A TWIST : "THE CAT VANISHES"

Carlos Sorin has always been a director I have greatly admired. I loved the subtle humor and emotion in his Argentina trilogy. I was therefore incredibly excited to see that his latest film, The Cat Vanishes would be gracing the big screen during the Istanbul film festival. I hadn’t seen that much by Sorin to be honest, but I had really enjoyed every single thing I had seen. I was therefore pleasantly surprised – but maybe not so surprised as all that – to find out that Sorin is a master of suspense and thrillers, just as he is when it comes to more day to day emotions… Luigi, a middle-aged university lecturer, has just had a psychotic break with reality, which has meant he has been in a mental institute for a number of months. But now, thankfully, all is well again, and his doctors deem him fit for the outside world once again. His extreme jealousy and possessiveness when it comes to his work and his paranoia and animosity concerning his former assistant seem to have subsided. Thus, his wife of a number of years, Betty, comes to pick him up, excited and in hope that they can start their life together from where it broke off so abruptly. But the thing is, there is something… Not quite right about Luigi. Betty simply cannot put her finger on it, on the surface he is just as he was and everyone, their children, neighbors and Luigi’s former students are all adamant that he looks fine, that she is rightly nervous due to the unpleasant events of a few months back. The only “person” who seems to agree with her seems to be the family cat Donatello, who refuses point blank to even go near Luigi, hissing and spitting, even scratching him when Luigi attempts anything. It is when, a few days after Luigi’s arrival, Donatello vanishes that Betty begins to worry. And not only about Donatello’s wellbeing, her own as well… But is she right to do so?... What I loved about this film is the way the suspense and the humor had been mixed. Sorin keeps his audience guessing about the nature of the film right to the end. What is going on in Luigi’s head? Is he really cured? Or is Betty the problem? Has she been so traumatized that she is now imagining this, projecting her worries onto her innocent husband? Speaking of innocence, what has happened to the cat? I mean, it’s just a cat, surely he’ll turn up… Coincidences do happen… Just sit back and relax, it isn’t until the last minutes of the film that Sorin reveals what the real story is all about. Until then we zig-zag between horror, suspense and comedy of errors, our decision changing almost every fifteen minutes with each new plot-twist. And the brilliant thing is that all these little plot-twists are conveyed without resolving to anything “big” as it were. All this psychology and suspense is very neatly and cleverly meshed into the couple’s day to day life with such perfect realism that I defy you not to become ever so slightly paranoid about the sanity and intentions of your own family members after watching this… Really exciting and great fun right to the end…