Film
Kedi
A love letter to Istanbul told through its free-roaming street cats, who wander in and out of shopfronts, kitchens and lives without ever quite belonging to anyone. It's less a nature documentary than a portrait of a city's soul, unhurried and generous, funny and unexpectedly moving. Watch it when you want something gentle that still leaves a lump in your throat.
If you liked this
Stray2019
The dog version of Kedi, shot at street level in the same city, following Istanbul's strays through political unrest and quiet companionship. Just as tender, slightly rawer.
But No narration and long silent stretches can feel meandering if you want more structure or human voices guiding you.
Won't You Be My Neighbor?2018
A documentary about kindness as a practice, centred on Fred Rogers, that shares Kedi's belief that gentleness is worth taking seriously as a subject.
But Sentimental by design — if you find earnestness cloying rather than moving, this will test your patience.
My Octopus Teacher2020
An unlikely, deeply felt bond between a man and a wild octopus, filmed with the same patient intimacy Kedi gives its cats. Genuinely surprising and tender.
But More personal and grief-driven than Kedi — it's one man's story, not a city's, and leans emotionally heavier.
The wildcard
Something you would not have found on your own.
Umberto D.1952
Same instinct — using the bond between a human city and a small, faithful animal to say something about dignity and survival — but from 1952, in stark, aching fiction rather than warm documentary.
Vittorio De Sica's Italian neorealist classic about an old man and his devoted little dog surviving on the margins of postwar Rome — humble, unbearably tender, and decades ahead of its time.
But Black-and-white, in Italian, and genuinely sad in a way Kedi never quite allows itself to be.
More like this (8)
Honeyland2019
A Macedonian beekeeper and her bees, filmed with extraordinary access and no interference, showing how animals and human survival intertwine in a hard landscape.
But Beautiful but bleaker — it carries real tension and hardship that Kedi mostly keeps at arm's length.
The Truffle Hunters2020
Elderly Italian men and their beloved dogs hunt truffles through misty forests, shot with a fairy-tale eye. Same warmth toward eccentric bonds between people and animals.
But Slower and more whimsical, with less of Kedi's urban bustle — it's a hush rather than a chorus.
Faces Places2017no page yet
Agnès Varda and street artist JR travel through French villages, pasting giant portraits of ordinary people on walls — a joyful, humanist portrait of place and dignity.
But No animals at all, and Varda's playful directorial presence is much more foregrounded than Kedi's invisible camera.
Gunda2021
A black-and-white, dialogue-free documentary following a pig and her piglets on a farm, treating animal life with total seriousness and startling grace.
But Almost aggressively slow and wordless — a real commitment even for people who loved Kedi's quieter moments.
Notturno2020no page yet
An observational documentary drifting across the borderlands of Iraq, Syria, Lebanon and Kurdistan, finding small human moments inside vast instability, much like Kedi finds intimacy in a sprawling city.
But Far darker material and no comforting throughline — this is observation of trauma, not charm.
Manakamana2013no page yet
Static, single-take footage of pilgrims (and the occasional goat) riding a Nepalese cable car, an experiment in patient observation that rewards total attention.
But Extremely minimal — long fixed shots with barely any narrative, a real test of stillness.
Isle of Dogs2018
It's the mirror image: where Kedi shows a city that lets its animals roam free and beloved, this imagines one that casts them out — same question about what a city owes its creatures, opposite answer, told in animated fiction.
Wes Anderson's stop-motion tale of dogs exiled to a trash island by a paranoid city government — meticulous, deadpan, strangely moving, and gorgeous to look at frame by frame.
But Anderson's arch, symmetrical style and dry humour are a world away from Kedi's loose, real-life warmth.
Paterson2016
Swaps the cat's-eye view of a city for a man's, but shares Kedi's core belief that paying close attention to ordinary rhythms is its own kind of grace — same register, human register instead of feline.
Jim Jarmusch's quiet film about a bus driver and poet in New Jersey, moving through small daily rituals — walking his dog, noticing his town — with the same unhurried attentiveness Kedi gives its cats.
But Almost nothing happens, deliberately, and its meditative pace will frustrate anyone hoping for more incident.
People
Cast
Bülent ÜstünSelf
Directing
- Ceyda TorunDirector
Production
- Ilan ArboledaCo-Producer
- John-Keith WassonCo-Producer
- Zeynep BoynerCo-Producer
- Gregor KewelExecutive Producer
- Thomas PodstawskiExecutive Producer
- Ceyda TorunProducer
- Charlie WuppermannProducer
- Orçun Cengiz AslanProduction Assistant
- Eset AkçiladResearcher
Recommended by
Shaun the Sheep Movie, My Octopus Teacher, Honeyland, The Yorkshire Vet