Made by the German director Franka Sachse with cut paper and touches of paint, Cat and Bird creates a sleight-of-hand game involving two creatures who are supposed to be kept apart: a cat and a bird. A split screen at the start shows that the white world of the black cat is at the other end of the spectrum to the black world of the white bird. But … a bad fall, a beating heart and a strike from a pair of sharp claws send the borders tumbling down! One by one the colours and shapes start to mingle and get mixed up, while the cat and the bird grow close to each other: the whiskered creature looks after the winged one while the bird encourages the cat to get airborne. As they fraternise, each takes a little something from the other and, ultimately, spots of gray paint appear, symbolising the merger of opposites. By portraying a friendship between two animals who normally seem at complete odds with each other, the director urges us to look beyond prejudices. The score alternates between comically exaggerated sound effects and a track reminiscent of music boxes. Utterly madcap in parts and spinning minds with every shot, Cat and Bird is an abstract and symbolic piece of choreography for which small children will go wild.
