Rent-a-Cat

Sayoko rents out cats. Every day she walks along the banks of the river towing her animals in a little handcart, with a parasol to shade her against the heat and a megaphone over her mouth: ‘Cats for rent! Are you lonely? Why not rent a cat?’ A wonderful idea, thinks one old lady, for if I were to buy a cat at my age she would certainly outlive me … Delighted to, intones a father, for a cat won’t mind if I smell like an old man … Oh, yes, chimes in an employee at a car rental company, I really am all alone … Sayoko’s cat rental helps lonely people fill the emptiness in their hearts. But Sayoko too is lonely; ever since her grandmother’s death she has lived with the cats in an overgrown haven in the midst of the big city where all she hears – apart from the cats meowing – are her eccentric neighbour’s insults. One day, a young man turns up from Sayoko’s past. He follows her home and all at once Sayoko’s life seems to fall apart . –Berlinale