Movie Review: Kedi

The translation of the Turkish word Kedi to English is Cat. And that is as simple as this movie is, because it is only about stray Cats in Istambul Turkey. This movie seems to focus on all the positive aspects while following a number of very healthy looking well-fed cats that are taken care of by the people who live in Istanbul. All of these cats seem to not only survive while living on the streets but actually thrive. The missing ingredient with this story is not covering the negative aspects of having so many cats crowded into one city. This includes the fact that the Turkish Government has obviously done a very bad job controlling the cat population in Istambul. The problems with a massive failure in controlling a cat population would include starvation and diseases caused by sanitation and many other issues. There is some mention of the problems with having so many cats in this film, including some cats that have understandably been killed by city traffic, but the central part of this story is all about how good a life for a cat seems to be in Istanbul Turkey and glossing over the big picture that you knew has to be there. I would have liked to have known why or how the cat population became so prolific? How does Istanbul rank in terms of all the cities in the world as far as having so many cats? What does the Turkish government do to take care of and protect all of these cats and are they trying to control the cat population? None of this is really talked about during this film.

On the positive side, the cats in this movie are all outstanding and most of them are extremely attractive and very healthy looking. One that stood out the most for me was a male gray cat (see video below) who was described as a cat that had some manners. This cat was always alone, and never was rude or harassed restaurant customers for food. He would stand up against the window and rub the glass so he would be noticed and then given food. Some other cats were more aggressive and one seemed to only like to be petted aggressively, rather than gently. As the subtitles in this movie said many times over, cats have as many diversified personalities as humans do and throughout this movie, many philosophies about life, the love of animals and specifically cats are talked about, most of which I strongly agreed with. After watching this movie, it is hard to understand why anyone does not love cats. Obviously, this is a great movie for all animal and cat lovers.

I highly recommend the movie Kedi.