Kedi Doc Review: Urban Cats roam Istanbul and steal hearts
I finally watched “Kedi” (meaning cat in Turkish) and as its director Ceyda Torun says, fell in love with my city and its people all over again.
I was born in Istanbul and lived there for 19 years. When you immediately experience the daily life in such a city, you don’t really realise how unique it is. You ignorantly appreciate it once you’ve been away.
Now that I live in London, I feel a greater love and longing for everything I liked in Istanbul and stray cats are a considerably large part of it.
Enough with the emotional confessions though.
First of all, internet proved that we don’t need a cast when we have cats, am I right? Kedi establishes its feline characters expertly and lowers us humans to their level (physically, otherwise cats are superior) and we witness their daily struggles, joys and interactions. Kedi also shows that in Istanbul, from rough looking men to young people on the streets, everyone embraces cats’ presence and they even see them as family.
“People who don’t like animals don’t like other people either” is a very common saying in Turkey, and Kedi focuses the lens on the humanity cats are able to bring out in people. Humans take care of cats and cats take care of humans in a way so this camaraderie between humans and cats is reflected beautifully in the documentary. Cats, “dissolve all the bad energy”.
Kedi is also a homage to Istanbul’s old and distinctive architecture and it captures some poetic moments. It will surely make you buy a ticket to Istanbul.
Though some may think it is just a 79 minute ‘cute’ journey, it has a message as well. Gentrification and modernisation is smothering our nature, and leaving neither animals nor us humans room to breath.
Kedi inspires hope, warmth and kind of daggers this emotional Istanbulite’s heart with longing.
