On Cats and Humans 

On Cats and Humans / O mačkama i ljudima

Sunčica Ana Veldić, Croatia, 2025, 60’ 

The filmmaker’s odyssey is an exploration of her own ethical stance as a veterinarian and a portrait of Croatian islands through an unusual lens: people’s attitudes toward the neutering of stray cats. 

The filmmaker and protagonist of the film, Sunčica, is a vet on a journey across the Croatian coast and its islands where she neuters stray cats with a team of activists and another vet. She is convinced she is helping the animals until she is confronted with arguments of an animal right activist who claims that castrators like her, in addition to immediate mutilation, are doing long-term damage to cats and to the ecosystem in general. Sunčica begins to question the ethics of her work, especially as she faces a surgical procedure on her own body. 

“The film explores the dilemma of castration and how readily we accept this issue when it comes to cats, yet how much the thought of it terrifies us when we ourselves are facing a surgery that will leave us without an organ. The film is set in the atmosphere of the winter—or at least off-season—underground of southern Dalmatia, where people live in rather difficult conditions, and their animals in even harsher circumstances.” Sunčica Ana Veldić  

Sunčica Ana Veldić is a veterinarian and filmmaker from Zagreb. Her journey in cinema began in 2013, when she enrolled in the film school at Kinoklub Zagreb. In 2017, she enrolled in a master’s program in documentary film directing. She makes documentary and experimental films. Some of her films have enjoyed international success, and her film Precijenjena dramaturgija, which she shot during her studies in 2017, is still frequently screened for educational purposes.

Talk: Sunčica Ana Veldić  

In collaboration with Divja misel.