The Rabbi’s Cat Aims for Animated Oscar

The Rabbi's Cat

The Rabbi’s Cat, an animated adaptation of Joann Sfar’s graphic novel about a talking feline and Jewish life in 1930s Algeria, is being pitched for the Best Animated Feature Oscar. It’s now screening in NY, opens next week in LA, and launches nationwide (with subtitles) in January.

Sfar co-wrote and co-directed the film. Here’s the description:

The Rabbi's Cat

Algeria in the 1930s is an intersection of Jewish, Arab, and French culture. A cat belonging to a widowed rabbi 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, and flavors of Mediterranean Africa, the film takes us on a cross continent adventure from the tiled terraces, fountains, quays and cafes of colonial Algiers to Maghrebi tent camps and dusty trading outposts, in search of a lost Ethiopian city.

The Rabbi's Cat



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