” Kedi” is not a documentary about domestic cats or the stray cats we occasionally see on the streets of our city. “Kedi” is a film about the hundreds of thousands of cats that have roamed freely in the metropolis of Istanbul for thousands of years, becoming part of its residents’ lives and affecting them in ways that only an animal living between the “wild” and the domesticated can. In Istanbul, cats are our own reflection.
“There is a mystery, an uncertainty that both cats and Istanbul share,” says Ceyda Torun, a native of this city and the director of the documentary, which tells the stories of seven of the many cats in this metropolis and the people who love them. In Turkish, “kedi” means “cat”, and the film shows how deeply intertwined cats are with the lives of the city’s residents.
Cat: Symbol of a culture
The cat could be considered one of the symbols of Ottoman culture and is the Turks’ favorite animal. According to historical sources, the Ottoman sultans already adored the cats that lived in their palace gardens, and many homes were built with cat doors, while numerous mosques had built-in aviaries.
A zoologist at Istanbul University showed Torun the skeleton of a cat that dates back 3,500 years. It was discovered during construction of the Marmaray underwater railway system. “It was unearthed right on the shore of the Bosphorus Strait and has a healed bone in one leg,” says Torun. “The zoologist’s professional opinion was that the bone could only have healed that way if someone had wrapped it.”
Kedi: A love letter
On her website, Torun explains that her childhood in Istanbul was much less lonely than it would have been without the presence of cats. The cats were her friends and confidants, and she misses them in every city she has lived in: “In many ways, this film is a love letter to those cats and to the city, both of which are changing unpredictably.
We invite you to watch the trailer for this wonderful documentary, which we can guarantee you will love. We hope to be able to see it soon in our country.