Yesterday, I got tickets to a small cineplex theater called the Metrograph in the Bowery, and they was screening a documentry from Istanbul. Istanbul is one of the oldest cites in Turkey where cats is seen to be sacred animals. The documentry is interveiw based and is told in Turkish but from the cats perspective so most of the camera angles are low to the ground. It’s a national custom to treat the cats with love and respect so the people in the street make room for them when they walk through the crowds. These cats are strays but they do not behave in a way you’d expect a stray animal would behave in America. The first cat we meet Sari is a golden cat who meows for food but we see whenever she gets a large piece of food we follow her to an apartment basement. In this apartment ground floor lobby is a group of kittens where we learned to be her children. I already mentioned that the documentry was an interview based film. They interviewed the humans who interact with the cats on daily basis. A shopkeeper who looks after Sari says her pesonailty changed after she had her children she used to be very carefree but now she is very serious and focused. Then we meet Bengu who unlike Sari who searches for food Bengu serches for affection. So we would see Bengu getting groomed from a stranger, or he would meet up with a friend who owns a boat and he take a boat ride with him. Then we meet an aggressor who pick fights with other cats, and cats being already territorial animals Psikopat is always in confrontation with other cats. So the documentary introduces them as Sari the Hustler, Bengu the lover, and Psikopat the psycho. All nicknames that reflect their different personalities. the film follow seven cats that live day by day and the way they interact with humans is interesting. It almost like they’re very self aware and independent. It’s a very interesting documentry and you should get tickets to the Metrograph and check it out.