https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1355638/
Plot
A Sephardic rabbi lives with his daughter, Zlabya, in Algiers at the beginning of the 20th century. One day, his daughter’s cat eats a parrot and thereby gains the parrot’s ability to speak. The rabbi therefore wants the cat to study the Torah so it can become a good Jewish cat. The cat then insists on having a bar mitzvah. The rabbi’s own rabbi forbids this after the cat entangled him in a theological debate. The rabbi therefore decides to teach the cat himself and eventually returns it to his daughter.
The cat, who serves as the story’s narrator, engages in discussions with the characters—a technique the Talmud uses to illustrate its teachings. She does not question faith, but as an animal, she finds herself caught in a tension that causes her to view religion differently than humans do. It is also now easier for her than for humans to recognize the weaknesses and contradictions of others, since she can follow them unnoticed and thus sees that their words and deeds sometimes contradict one another. In this way, she gains insights into the human soul, but also into the power of faith and the weakness of the faithful.
The rabbi is asked to take a French dictation exam in order to be recognized by the Jewish Council of France. However, his spelling skills are rather poor, and as he sits taking the exam, the cat—in violation of the rules—calls out God’s name to ask for help. As a result, she loses the ability to speak.
The rabbi receives a visit from his cousin Malka, who is always on the move with a rifle and a lion. On the occasion of a parishioner’s death, a visitor arrives from France, whom the rabbi takes in. When he learns that the young man is himself a rabbi and is set to take on a new position, he embarks on a journey, at the end of which he learns that he has passed the dictation. Upon his return, however, he discovers that his guest is asking for his daughter’s hand in marriage. She leaves the house, leaving the rabbi and the cat deeply shaken.
After the wedding, the rabbi accompanies his daughter and her husband to Paris to visit his son-in-law’s family. Even on the boat ride from Algeria, the rabbi gets on the young couple’s nerves by disparaging Jewish life in France. Eventually, he refuses to enter his son-in-law’s father’s house because the man isn’t religious enough. He wanders through rainy Paris, can’t find a hotel room, and stands in front of the locked synagogue. Eventually, he spends the night on a bench in a church, where the Christian symbols frighten him. When hunger gets the better of him, he goes to a restaurant where he breaks every rule of kosher eating. He runs into his nephew, who makes a living as a street performer and pretends to be Arab. He spends a few days with him and even begins to understand his son-in-law’s father.
In Volume 4, the rabbi’s cat has returned from rainy Paris to Algeria. In “The Earthly Paradise,” the cat travels across the country with Malka and his lion. Malka proves to be not only a resourceful storyteller but also quite a sly one when it comes to making a living. But his tricks don’t always work, and so he finds himself in an existential crisis. And since the lion isn’t entirely blameless in this, he decides to bid farewell to life.
A Russian painter stowed away in a wooden crate full of religious texts—which the rabbi’s son-in-law had acquired from the anti-Semitic Communist Party of the Soviet Union—and made his way to Algiers. He is searching for a legendary ancient Israelite city called “Jerusalem,” which—according to Soviet intelligence—is said to have survived for millennia in the heart of Black Africa. The rabbi agrees to travel across the African continent with the young Russian artist (and, of course, his cat, who has finally regained the ability to speak) in search of the city. Although the artist finds a life partner in a waitress during the journey, he is disappointed to discover that the city—which does indeed exist in secret—is not exactly welcoming to visitors of a different skin color.
