Empenho: Pelos Olhos dos Cães

I understand the reason behind the film's appeal to the international audience. It's interesting, if you've never been to turkey. you don't know there are strays roaming? cool, interesting. you don't know there are syrian kids out on the streets, making ends meet? this film is a starter. but other than that, what is there really? and most importantly, what does it really say about either dogs or the refugees? does it even try?

the film really feels as though an outsider found themselves in a completely new environment and they were so shocked that they had to observe everything before they could say a word. there are no risks taken, just a camera following the same dogs and kids for an hour and half.

if the film's supposed to be about the kids we follow, why not talk to them or get to know their families or give them a chance to speak for the situations they are in? if it's about the strays as it claims, why not interact with people, volunteers, communities that feed them every single day. as it is, it feels like an exotic framing of the most mundane situations for the people and animals that are actually in them. it does not try to learn more, it is just there to film it.

as someone who resides in turkey, i thought it was bittersweet to see the kids with their beloved dogs but i can't help but feel a bit betrayed by how lazy both the concept and production were overall.

Before starting to watch the documentary, I thought that it would be about stray dogs and their lives, how they fed by citizens or organisations, or interaction between dogs and people. However, the documentary is completely different. It just superficially mentions the life of a couple of stray dogs and refugees in Turkey.

Thank you for portraying the realities of being an Istanbul citizen. Thank you for the healing power this documentary provided me Its the best documentary since Samsara I live in the loneliest country in the World. Fear has seperated us from the rest. The stray is our collective hunger for love. Thank you for reminding

... but not much more. A documentary with interesting facts about dogs' lives in Istanbul, some insight into the long canine-human history, a little cautious commentary on refugees and politics. Is it really a movie? I am not sure.

As a dog lover and someone who loves and has visited Istanbul I was excited to see this documentary. It's nice that it portrays a couple of stray dogs roaming free in the streets of Istanbul along with some Syrian refugees and sheds light on their similar conditions, but it doesn't deliver anything else. It's an interesting and important watch but it feels like something is missing. It needs some interaction and probably some more depth to the plot.