A dark comedy-drama, a black (cat) comedy, in which the contemporary political term 'a dead cat strategy' is taken literally.
Two brothers stare down at a dead cat. The older manipulative brother, Edgar, looks at it emotionlessly. The younger innocent brother, Lewis, looks like he’s going to be sick. Edgar has concocted a plan to pretend this dead cat they’ve found in the road is elderly, wealthy Felix Wilson’s lost cat. This is to distract him whilst they steal a valuable painting that hangs in his sitting room. It’s the first burglary Edgar and Lewis have done, and you can tell.
Yet the brothers end up having afternoon tea with Felix. As Lewis is tasked to distract Felix, whilst Edgar steals the painting, he discovers that him and the cat owner have an affinity and share a common interest in looking after animals. Felix leaves to collect a photo album of his time at an animal sanctuary, to show Lewis. At this point, Lewis realises that what he and his brother are doing is wrong. For the first time in his life, Lewis confronts his older brother and they fight, a pathetic sibling squabble using the tea and cake Felix served them. Felix returns to see utter chaos. Lewis blurts out the truth and Edgar flees. Instead of following, Lewis stays to apologise and tidy up. In this act, Felix sees Lewis isn’t really a burglar and forgives him.
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Felix encourages Lewis to step out from his brother’s shadow and, to give him a helping hand, gives him a reference to work at the animal sanctuary. Lewis leaves beaming. As Felix watches him go, he notices his lost cat sitting on the garden wall. He’s been found.
why the film was made
The term 'a dead cat strategy' has always stuck with me due to its bizarre name. The idea of a dead cat strategy is to use something surprising to distract from something even worse. I am interested in making films which play with storytelling and constructing an engaging narrative. When I first heard the term, I was intrigued by the fact it was an idea where narrative is manipulated, but just in a political context. I wanted to explore the parallels between the term and my interests as a writer. This was why I made it the focus of my graduation film, as it allowed me to explore the type of stories I want to tell and learn about writing and producing comedy, whilst balancing it with the dramatic side of the story. I was intrigued by how the comedy can alter an audiences' relationship with a character and how the comedy can be utilised to assist the drama. I was inspired by films such as The Ladykillers (Mackendrick. 1995) and TV series such as Guilt (2019-) and Inside No. 9 (2014-), the latter being specifically the episode A Quiet Night In (2014). As I began to write, I became interested in the brother’s relationships, and how this could be the crux of the story and how the naïve character could be the cause of the plan unravelling. I was more drawn to the character of Lewis and his perspective. It has become a more coming-of-age tale of sorts, and the meeting with the elderly cat owner, Felix, has a positive result. For the relationship between Lewis and Felix, I was inspired by films such as Harold and Maude (Ashby. 1971) and Paddington (King. 2014) which have kind representations of relationships between younger and older characters. I wanted the film to have an upbeat, light-hearted and farcical tone, but with more emotion when needed. We want to feel empathy for Lewis, our protagonist.
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Filming took place in Edinburgh City Centre with a crew of University of Edinburgh students and a cast who ranged from professional actors to students who had experience at LAMDA, National Youth Theatre, Edinburgh Fringe and Netflix productions.
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Below you can find some behind the scenes stills and promotional posters for the film!
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Above (clockwise): 2nd AC, sound recordist, actor, boom operator and actor on set of the exterior location.
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Director, cinematographer on set of exterior location.
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Actor, sound recordist and boom operator on set of the interior location.
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The Dead Cat Strategy poster
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Director and Actor discussing a scene.
