Screening date set to Saturday the first of June in Stockholm!

Cat Kingdom – synopsis

The unemployed engineer Kenneth devotes all his time building hobby models. On his way to an imposed job interview, Kenneth runs in to the marine scientist Sten, who offers him an assistant job down at his shipyard. Kenneth’s heavily pregnant partner Marta draws a sigh of relief, but what begins with a simple painting job gradually develops into suspicious investigation work.

What we need 

We started to shoot the story of CAT KINGDOM back in 2018 and has now nearly reached the end of the post production. In making Sweden’s most ambitious film to date takes time and requires patience. The film has a distribution for Swedish cinemas and is expected to have its release in spring 2024. We are now raising funds for the last piece of the puzzle: the completion of the sound mix and sound mastering of the film.

Writer / Director / Producer – John Hellberg

JOHN HELLBERG works as a screenwriter and film director. He is educated at Stockholm Film School and has directed both feature films and documentaries. Among his most noticed productions are the short films Mousse (2012) and Galetten (2008), which attracted great international interest. Mousse has over 300 international festival screenings and over 100 awards. He recently completed the short film Arpeggio (2021), as well as being the A-photographer on Baker Karim’s feature film Glaciär (2021). John Hellberg also has a background as a film editor. He has edited loads of short films, music videos and commercials and has also edited Josef Fare’s feature film Farsan (2010).

Writer / Director – Bernhard Rasmusson

BERNHARD RASMUSSON has his background in animated film. He has worked for a long time at Filmtecknarna where he collaborated with Jonas Odell in commercial film productions and with music videos. Bernhard finds much of his inspiration in 70s films such as Steven Spielberg’s and John Carpenter’s early productions. Directors such as Roy Andersson and Paul Thomas Anderson also make an impression on Bernhard’s storytelling. Bernhard has a background as a musician.​

Director’s commentary

In CAT KINGDOM we follow one man’s escape from life’s treadmill through a disturbed man’s psyche. The viewer navigates what appears to be the early 1990s in a middle-sized city in Sweden. Like the short film Mousse, the indefinite time and place serve a purpose: the audience is forced to free itself from obvious references and hopefully stand bare before the story.  

KENNETH is a stranger to the society in which he lives. Sure, he’s Swedish, but he could just as easily been from the Bahamas. It’s only natural that his girlfriend MARTA puts her faith in Sten, his new acquaintance, believing Sten to be the right man to pull Kenneth from his destructive path and save their failing relationship. Sten’s authority and fatherly bearing convince her that he is the archetypical mentor for Kenneth, and the only way to bring Kenneth in from the cold. His employment with Sten, though, serves to make him, if possible, even further marginalized. But in Cat Kingdom things are seldom what they seem to be: what is set in motion during Kenneth’s days on Sten’s wharf perhaps – in the end – doesn’t stray too far from the actual goal… like a cat fumbling for balance in a free fall and then – at the last second – landing on its feet.

CAT KINGDOM is about the lack of connection. For Sten, it’s all based on his longing for his father. For Kenneth his inability to adapt is apparent in his relationship with his girlfriend Marta. These elementary needs are the warm hand that follows the viewer through an otherwise precarious and bumpy story. It’s these fundamental needs of the characters that are our touchstones. In the midst of all the confusion and chaos, there is also something quite rudimentary. A small story that becomes a big one, and then becomes a small one again.

Cinematic references

Imagery and form in Cat Kingdom act, to a certain extent, as misdirection. Here, established cinematic expressions are used in new contexts. This is a conscious play with the audience’s perceptions: unfamiliar and obscure scenes framed in ways in which we are all familiar test our pre-conceptions. Okay, here comes the campfire scene! Huh? Okay…

Works that inspired us during the development of The Cat Kingdom:

Fargo (Coen Brothers) – for its ability to dress a little tale in grand a costume. For the humor of the details and the thoroughness of the minor characters.

Riket (Lars von Trier) – for its unparalleled balance between comedy, drama, and shock.

Halloween (John Carpenter) – for its true independent soul.

Roy Andersson’s filmmaking – for his magnificent talent to make us nearly choke with laughter over mankind’s shortcomings.