Kedi (2016 film)

On Rotten Tomatoes, Kedi holds an approval rating of 98% based on 128 reviews, and an average rating of 7.8/10. The website's critical consensus reads, "Kedi is a cat fancier's dream, but this thoughtful, beautifully filmed look at Istanbul's street feline population offers absorbing viewing for filmgoers of any purr-suasion."^[9]

Joe Leydon wrote in Variety, "[Ceyda] Torun, a Turkish-born filmmaker now based in the United States, and cinematographer Charlie Wuppermann, her partner in the production company Termite Films, take their audience on a leisurely yet purposeful journey throughout Istanbul (where Torun was raised) to examine a local phenomenon dating back to the heyday of the Ottoman Empire: Thousands of cats roam freely virtually everywhere and anywhere, peacefully co-existing with humans who learned long ago not to assume they are the masters in this situation."^[6]

On NPR, John Powers wrote, "Kedi's stars, of course, are cats, and the film glides around Istanbul's back alleys, boho enclaves and rat-infested piers to show us the range of these characters.... As Torun's nimble camera follows the cats doing their rounds – filching food, catching rats, scaring off interlopers – the film offers a glimpse of something richer and more poetic. We see that these cats aren't merely wondrous creatures in themselves, but that they enrich the whole city. They give the people around them a vision of another freer, wilder, more spontaneous form of life, one that can be easily lost in a huge, stressful, rapidly modernizing place like Istanbul."^[10]

Mike D'Angelo wrote on The A.V. Club, "Inevitably, the film doubles as an intimate exploration of one of the world's most beautiful cities... Were Kedi strictly about Istanbul and cats, though, it’d be pretty banal. Instead, there's a fascinating therapeutic undercurrent to the interviews with human beings. Torun doesn't intellectualize this in any way; no experts show up to discuss our tendency to anthropomorphize animals, seeing ourselves in them. But several people talk frankly about having felt broken in some way, and about how taking care of homeless cats feels redemptive."^[11]

In The Washington Post, Vanessa H. Larson wrote, "The camerawork skillfully mimics a cat’s-eye view, with extended sequences filmed just over the animals’ shoulders using remote-controlled camera rigs that follow them as they saunter around, forage for meals and get into hissing matches. Interspersed throughout the film are also beautiful drone-captured aerial shots of Istanbul’s sprawling streets and the Bosporus waterway, which impart a strong sense of place."^[12]

Glenn Kenny wrote in The New York Times, "There’s a good deal of projection in the verbal accounts of the animals' lives, but the movie, with its mobile camera low to the ground or looking down at cat-navigated rooftops, doesn’t do much to contradict the indirect anthropomorphizing.... The movie is replete with ingeniously constructed mini-narratives, including a turf war. The mesmerizing score by Kira Fontana, interspersed with well-chosen Turkish pop, is a real asset."^[13]

• Official website
• Kedi at IMDb
• Kedi at Box Office Mojo