A Different Look at Istanbul's Street Animals

Let's take a look at the street animals of Istanbul with two documentaries.

Istanbul is a famous city of well-fed street animals. And there are two sides to the medallion stray cats and stray dogs. The first side of the medallion is cats that can reach more love, more opportunities, and more kindness. Another side of the medallion is dogs that are survivors, outcasts, and alone. Why am I thinking like that? You can say "As an animal lovers, we love and care for both kinds equally." But we don't. Let's prove this with two documentaries.

KEDI

This cat documentary is about several of Istanbul's street cats and their people, also about these cats' personalities and some memories that people told cameras. This documentary felt cozy and sweet, like the quote on a poster "a magical and remarkable documentary".

Nominated for many film festival awards and winning some of them, KEDI was released in 2016. Here is the trailer.

STRAY

This documentary is about the daily life of dogs. It gives you the chance to watch the experiences and struggles of Zeytin and her human and dog friends from the first perspective.

Nominated for many film festival awards and winning some of them, STRAY was released in 2020. Here is the trailer.


This dog documentary showed me that we are not caring enough for our stray dogs. They do not have the tolerance we give to cats, but they continue to ensure our safety by accompanying us all as we walk a deserted road at night.

What do you think about these stray animals documentaries?