Come and let the street cats of Istanbul work their irresistibly purr-fect magic on you. The charming Kedi is a city symphony of sorts, taking in its purview the changing nature of the megalopolis as well as the people who love and care for its feline population.

Director Ceyda Torun and her husband/cinematographer Charlie Wuppermann filmed in a variety of scenic Istanbul neighborhoods for two months in April and May of 2014, shooting six-day weeks, for 16 hours a day or more. Torun says, "When your subjects are available for filming 24/7, it's impossible to set down the camera, even during meals."

Caring for these animals is understood to be a social and religious obligation in Turkey, and it's estimated that there are as many cats as people in Istanbul. Seven made it to final cut of this genuinely touching doc.

"A splendidly graceful and quietly magical documentary about the multifaceted feline population of Istanbul... a profoundly affecting meditation, at once dreamy and precise, on a force of nature-with paws and tails-surviving and thriving in an industrialized world." Joe Leydon, Variety

Ceyda Torun – Director (January 8 & 9 only)