Kedi

The man describes that before he began feeding and caring for hordes of stray cats, he didn't know how to laugh, to enjoy life.  Salvation for him.  He lives in Turkey, but for animal lovers, that observation is entirely universal.  Most pet owners will attest to the immeasurable quality of life resulting from our non human friends' presence.  Stress melts as a furry one lands in our lap or rushes our leg in greeting.  I could be speaking of dogs or other animals of course, but 2016's KEDI focuses on the perhaps most intriguing four legged creatures of all.

I used the term "pet", suggesting domesticity, but the cats in this documentary are street roamers.  Free spirits who crawl the mysterious and beautiful alleyways of Instanbul, a city that gets as much of a showcase in director Ceyda Torun's as the felines, some of whom are identified and given descriptors.  They do their own thing as most cats do, but will return to the restaurants or studios of the humans who feed them and show them affection.  Chefs, artists, fish market vendors, and others give loving assessments of their visitors who became residents.  Anyone who has been around cats will recognize the described behaviors, many of which, it is pointed out, mirror that of humans.  Some viewers of KEDI might accuse the interviewees of anthropomorhism.  It's not unfounded, and usually accurate.

Charlie Wuppermann and Alp Korfali do some impressive cat level camera work, and their subjects don't always look at the lens! I'm sure the eighty minutes we have here were edited from hundreds or more hours.  Action shots include tree to awning jumps and a vivid hissing match during a turf war.  Periodically we get soaring drone shots above the city, which are gorgeous even if we get one or two too many.

KEDI, nicely scored by Kira Fontana, is expectedly adorable, and does address the terrible inevitability of the loss of life.  This is discussed realistically by a few folks we meet who have more or less devoted themselves to caring for the armies of feral kitties who daily wait for food and sometimes medicine.  Gentle souls who recognize that these thousands of creatures add to the landscape, and are an inseparable part of it.  Who worry about the continuous development that threatens it all.  With KEDI it won't take too much effort to discern that Torun's film is about far more than just the little furballs.