"kedi"

"Kedi" (Oscilloscope Laboratories)

Cats are regarded (scratch that — beloved) far and wide for their deeply inquisitive nature, yet there is no city on earth that seems to relish their odd, symbiotic relation to man as much as the transcontinental port capital of Istanbul, Turkey. With "Kedi," first-time Turkish filmmaker Ceyda Torun wastes no time on historical preamble, dedicating her attention instead to the gritty street lives of seven feral felines seeking food, shelter, sex, and — you guessed it, friendship. 

While the kitties' original induction to the city may have been to ward off disease-carrying vermin, these four-legged street kings' newfound bona fides seem to rely on a much more philosophical, introspective practicality in Torun's work. Her carefully-crafted meditation on species and survival brims with beauty and simplicity, serving as a 75-minute respite from all things Trump, Brexit and a whole host of other slow-brewing European crises.

As a self-anointed "cat person," my decades-long disposition precludes me from watching this without some bias... In fact, I might go so far as to argue "Kedi" doubles as a counter-chapter to the BBC's "Planet Earth" — trading luxuriously planned shots in favor of more cinema verité, cat's-eye-view style film-making. While breathtakingly gorgeous and inventive, shows like "Earth" remain keenly (and stubbornly) aware of themselves, whereas Torun's outing aims to deconstruct our very relationship to the animals by refusing to indulge in the kind of movie magic that makes us forget we were ever once animals ourselves. 

If you happen to be a dog person (and have a limited attention span), then "Kedi" may not be the right outing for you, but if you're willing to expand your pet-palette just a little, you'll be in for a revelatory treat. As one local shop owner likens his psychological well-being to that of his adoptive kittens, he reminds us, "as life gets rougher, people endure not by hardening themselves even further, but by continuing to find the freedom to be kind."

I can't wait for the Disneyland cat documentary.

"KEDI" Not rated. In Turkish, with English subtitles. Running time: 1 hour 19 minutes.