Gokogu no Neko

Steep steps lead up to the Gokogu Shinto shrine in Ushimado. The local children play on them and the older residents attend to their upkeep, even planting mint on either side. Kazuhiro Soda presents these steps as a site of transition that also forms a key element of this tiny set-up. For this elevated shrine isn’t just somewhere to visit for spiritual purposes – Ushimado’s feline community has also set up home here, an occasionally dynamic collective consisting of cats abandoned by their owners and their subsequent offspring. They need to be cared for, even as their population must be kept in check. Kazuhiro Soda’s documentaries always follow his own set of rules and show the seemingly innocuous, yet still weighty requirements of co-existence. Slowly, yet persistently, The Cats of Gokogu Shrine expands his gaze; the focus on details, everyday tendernesses and discipline gives this chronicle of a year a dimension that is at once down-to-earth and universal. And the presence of Kazuhiro Soda himself, who has lived in Ushimado for several years, can also be experienced first-hand in a restrained, honest manner. (Berlinale)