About

In this Czech family film, a travelling theatre’s cat has the ability to reveal people’s true colours. Beloved by children and feared by adults, the bespectacled feline wreaks delightful chaos when the theatre visits a small town.

The Cassandra Cat is bookended as a fairy tale with local rascal Oliva (Jan Werich) as narrator, who also happens to be a doppelganger of the theatre’s Master of Ceremonies. Using Prague’s famous ‘black box theatre’ style, popularised in the 60s, the whole town comes to see the show featuring aerial gymnast Diana (Emília Vásáryová) and her magical moggy, Mourek. When she removes the cat’s glasses, townsfolk literally change colour according to their vices – grey for thieves, yellow for adulterers – or red to reveal they are in love (although not always with their spouses). What follows is an often-hypnotic visual spectacle of colour and music, with doses of surrealistic fantasy and silent-film slapstick thrown in.

Part of the Czech New Wave, the film’s narrative and style champion creativity, rejecting the former restrictions of its nationalised film industry. It achieves this by foregrounding the joyful innocence of childhood and ridiculing corrupt and deceitful adults.

Ages 12+ | Contains mild themes