Felidae (film)

Felidae
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Michael Schaack
Produced by	Jo Hahn Hanno Huth Michael Schaack Stefaan Schieder
Screenplay by	Akif Pirinçci Martin Kluger
Story by	Akif Pirinçci
Based on	Felidae by Akif Pirincci
Starring	Ulrich Tukur Mario Adorf Helge Schneider Uwe Ochsenknecht Klaus Maria Brandauer
Music by	Anne Dudley
Cinematography	John Leatherbarrow(camera supervisor)
Edited by	Thorsten Andersen Sylvia Genzmer Monika Negt Michael Thaler
Production company	TFC Trickompany Animationstudio Ludewig Uli Meyer Animation Natterjack Animation Azadart Mediasoft Premier Films A-Film APS Dagda Film Limited Hahn Shin Corporation Wang Film Productions
Distributed by	Senator Film Distribution
Release date	November 3, 1994 (1994-11-03) (Germany)
Running time	82 minutes
Country	Germany Denmark Taiwan
Language	German English

Felidae is a 1994 German adult animated neo-noir/crime thriller film directed by Michael Schaack, produced by Trickompany and written by Martin Kluger, Stefaan Schieder and Akif Pirinçci. The film is based on Pirinçci's 1989 novel of the same name. It includes the voices of Ulrich Tukur, Mario Adorf and Klaus Maria Brandauer. The story centers on domestic house cat Francis and the grisly feline murders taking place in his new neighborhood.

Francis, an intelligent and cynical cat, is moved to a gloomy, dilapidated house with his owner Gustav Löbel, an architect and erotic novelist. During Francis's exploratory tour of the house, he discovers a cat's corpse. At the crime scene, he meets and befriends Bluebeard, a foul-mouthed, one-eyed Maine Coon.

Soon, Francis discovers another body and the fact that his house's top floor is the meeting site of a sect of cats led by Joker; the members of the sect worship an entity named Claudandus and perform ritualistic suicide by throwing themselves in an electric current. When Francis's cover is blown, he is chased through the city's rooftops. He escapes through a skylight and meets a blind cat named Felicity, who supplies Francis with information on the Claudandus sect. The next day, Bluebeard takes Francis to Pascal, an elderly and tech-savvy cat who has taken to meticulously maintaining a list of feline deaths in the area, though which Francis learns that Felicity is the latest victim. That night, Francis is haunted by a nightmare in which Gregor Mendel leaves him with riddles.

During a rodent hunt, Francis discovers a video recording that documents the top floor's previous use as an experimental laboratory that was devoted to the research and development of a tissue adhesive that would close wounds in an instant. The test subjects largely consisted of stray cats. However, the serums usually failed, causing the animals to suffer painful deaths. The one cat who survived the experiments was christened by the lab's technicians as "Claudandus", Latin for "He who should or must be sealed". However, Claudandus eventually murdered the project's lead technician, leading to the escape of the other strays and the closure of the lab. Claudandus subsequently became a martyr figure.