A rat exterminator so committed to his craft that he has come to resemble the vermin he hunts is the entire premise of The Rat Catcher, a 17-minute Wes Anderson comedy short from 2023.
What is The Rat Catcher about?
The premise is simple and stays simple: a rat catcher, played by Richard Ayoade, has built a scheme to earn the rodents' trust before turning on them, and the short follows that plan through Anderson's signature symmetrical framing and deadpan delivery. Ralph Fiennes and Rupert Friend round out the small cast, and at just seventeen minutes the film moves briskly, treating its odd premise with total seriousness rather than winking at the audience. The comedy comes from tone rather than incident: flat narration, precise blocking, and a professional's pride in an unglamorous trade.
About the cast
Richard Ayoade takes the title role, playing the rat catcher's fixation with a straight face that carries the short's comic engine. Ralph Fiennes and Rupert Friend complete the cast, working within Wes Anderson's tightly controlled visual style, where performance is often as much about posture and timing as dialogue.
Context & significance
At seventeen minutes, The Rat Catcher sits in the short-film format Wes Anderson has used for compact, single-premise comedies, letting one odd occupation carry the whole runtime rather than building a larger plot around it. The film carries a 2023 catalogue year and fits within Anderson's broader body of work, recognisable for symmetrical compositions, dry line readings and a fondness for characters who take strange jobs completely seriously. It's a brief watch, suited to viewers who already know Anderson's rhythm and want a compact dose of it.
Watching The Rat Catcher on Ktime
The Rat Catcher can be watched on K-Time with a free account login, and the platform offers it with Persian dub and Persian subtitle options, so viewers can pick a Farsi voice track or the original English dialogue with Farsi subtitles. Because it runs under twenty minutes, it's an easy addition to a longer watch session on K-Time's Farsi-first interface, built for the Iranian diaspora from browsing through playback.