A Cat Called Dom

A Cat Called Dom defies classification just as the eponymous animated cat cannot be decoded with a single, succinct interpretation. After his mum’s cancer diagnosis, animator Will Anderson became compelled to make a film about his relationship with her illness, but finds himself frustrated at every juncture. The resulting film, co-directed by Anderson and Ainslie Henderson, maps the difficult creative process of its own creation – like a behind-the-scenes doc of the movie we’re watching.

From here grows Dom – a cartoon cat (voiced by Tobias Feltus) trapped on a desktop who grows from pixels, irritates his creator and tries to infiltrate his life. He might represent cancer, Anderson’s worst impulses, or even the animator’s relationship with his own creations. Dom’s animation is cute, expressive, and janky all in one, and marks an evolution in Anderson’s style of recording casual conversations and turning them into live-action/animated hybrids. Screen-capture footage, claustrophobic close-ups, and webcam testimonies all form a patchwork of how fear, illness, and grief completely upend our ability to create.

In its compact form, A Cat Called Dom’s inability to tell a purely satisfying narrative will disappoint some, but this inability soon transforms into a rejection of constructing catharsis when real life offers you none. Pitched as half-animation, half-documentary, Anderson’s first feature is more of a process, one that wears its constructed segments proudly – their inadequacies are, after all, the point. Besides, there’s no denying the authenticity of Anderson and his Highland mum’s whispered courage as they consider how they’ve been changed.

---

Released 22 Sep by Cosmic Cat; certificate TBC