{"id":6525,"date":"2017-04-14T07:02:00","date_gmt":"2017-04-14T11:02:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/?p=6525"},"modified":"2017-04-25T07:31:36","modified_gmt":"2017-04-25T11:31:36","slug":"kedi","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/?p=6525","title":{"rendered":"Kedi"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Kedi,Worried about the increasingly autocratic government of Turkey? Erdogan\u2019s round-up of dissidents? His relations with Syria? You can forget all that watching this documentary (trailer<\/a>) by Turkish filmmaker Ceyda Torun and cinematographer Charlie Wuppermann, about Istanbul\u2019s Big Romance with\u2014cats! (What did you think \u201cKedi\u201d means?)<\/p>\n

At an hour twenty-minutes, the film is somewhat longer than it might be, but as a vacation from the news cycle, perhaps not long enough. The residents of Istanbul don\u2019t \u201cown\u201d most of the cats that roam their streets and markets, that nest in quiet places and makeshift hideaways. But they more than tolerate them, they celebrate them. And the cats, meanwhile, act like \u201cslumming royals,\u201d says Joe Leydon<\/a> in Variety<\/em>. You can see the cast here.<\/a><\/p>\n

A number of the featured felines rule the neighborhoods where they live, defending their turf against interlopers and providing benefits to the humans. \u201cThey absorb my negative energy,\u201d one man says. A waterside restaurant owner who\u2019d had a problem with \u201cmice\u201d (I fear this was a euphemism) celebrated the day \u201cthis lion took up residence.\u201d She takes care of the \u201cmice,\u201d to the comfort of the diners, I\u2019m sure. My particular favorite was the cat who lives at a deli. She never goes inside, but paws at the window\u2014rather insistently, it should be noted\u2014when she wants one of the countermen to make her a snack.<\/p>\n

The filmmakers identified a number of the city’s human residents whose mission seems to be to keep these felines in food. One pair of women cooks twenty pounds of chicken a day for them. (!) \u201cAll of us have tabs with all the vets,\u201d says a bakery owner, and we see a man take an injured kitten to the vet in a taxi..<\/p>\n

In short, the film is charming. It talks about how cats are different than dogs. And it shows how caring for the cats has been helpful to people in many ways. Suitable for all ages, and especially for those who have\u2014or wish they had\u2014been to Istanbul and now are reluctant to go because of paragraph one above. As Leydon says, it\u2019s \u201csplendidly graceful and quietly magical.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rotten Tomatoes<\/a> critics rating: 97%; audiences: 87%.<\/p>\n

Related Reading<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Istanbul isn\u2019t the only city with wonderful cats. Felines of New York<\/em> \u2013featuring indoor cats, it must be said\u2014gives them deadpan quotes: \u201cI\u2019m not entirely familiar with the Internet thing. Like, I\u2019ve heard of it, but I\u2019ve never watched it or smelled it or whatever you do to the Internet. I\u2019ve heard it\u2019s full of cats, though. Is that true?\u201d LOL! (affiliate link below). <\/a>\"\"<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Worried about the increasingly autocratic government of Turkey? Erdogan\u2019s round-up of dissidents? His relations with Syria? You can forget all that watching this documentary (trailer) by Turkish filmmaker Ceyda Torun and cinematographer Charlie Wuppermann, about Istanbul\u2019s Big Romance with\u2014cats! (What … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"Kedi - a delightful documentary vacation from the news cycle featuring Istanbul's marvelous cats","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[58,56,359,104,78],"tags":[960,961,962,959,73],"class_list":["post-6525","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-documentaries","category-film","category-review","category-the-morgue","category-travel","tag-cats","tag-ceyda-torun","tag-charlie-wuppermann","tag-istanbul","tag-nature"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/s2NkiT-kedi","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6525","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6525"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6525\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6530,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6525\/revisions\/6530"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6525"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6525"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6525"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}