Kedi

Movie (Documentary), 2017, Not Rated

Premise - A Turkish documentary about the thousands of stray cats who live in Istanbul on the streets alongside humans. Though these cats have no official owner, each cat appears to have honorary owners, those of which they revisit the most frequently for food, shelter, and most importantly, love. These humans take it upon themselves to care for the street cats as equal members of society.

Review - My heart is full. My eyes are open. My head is clear. This is an enlightening movie to warm the spirit if I ever saw one. I mean, it's CATS. And then, MORE CATS. And then it's EVEN MORE CATS. The camera follows around all these cats on their day to day adventures through the streets of Istanbul, and the humans who love them. I mean, the camera literally gets down on the cat's level to follow them around and them cats don't care. I am so full of happiness.

What's remarkable is how different every cats' personality is. Any cat owner knows this, no two cats are alike. Same as humans. Every cat has their own quirks, likes/dislikes, features, and general affect. It's impossible watch and feel as though these animals don't have a soul. We follow a number of cats throughout this documentary to witness their specific lifestyle, and they are all so wildly unique. It made me reflect on my own cats, as I have owned numerous over the years, and think of their similarities and differences to one another as well as to the cats in this film. I already loved my cats with 100% of my heart but somehow this documentary made me love them even more.

It's also just a remarkable cultural exploration of how humans understand these cats. As street cats, they aren't "owned" by humans, so as to say they aren't "underneath" humans. Their freedom is just as valued as a human's freedom. It's controversial in the West, for example as my cats are indoor cats. Street cats have freedom yes, but at the cost of what I'd imagine is a much shorter average lifespan. So the humans care about these cats, but how invested can they truly be? I really felt for this woman who became addicted to feeding the street cats as a way to help her deal with the concept of grief and death.

Hmm, have I mentioned I love cats? They're all so cute. And they're all so varied, as they migrated to Istanbul from all over the world via ships. My heart can't take it. (96/100)

Quote - “The love of animals is a different kind of love. People who don’t love animals can’t love people either. I know that much.”

What to watch for - I've talked enough about the cats so I would say that it's important to watch for the Istanbul scenery! What a fantastic city, and it's near the top of my list of places I'd like to visit someday.

If you liked this movie, I'd recommend Life of Pi! It's my favorite book of all time and also deals with the (equal) relationship between man and animal, as well as having an Eastern perspective.

Directed by Ceyda Torun

Distributed by YoutubeRED