Mark Reviews Movies: STRAY

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Review by Mark Dujsik | March 4, 2021

The lives of a few stray dogs in Istanbul are documented in Stray. Elizabeth Lo's debut feature, shot over the course of three years, takes a sympathetic view of its wandering pups, but the real point, which has little to do with the movie's canine stars, is kind of lost with the dog-centric focus.

We primarily follow Zeytin, a pretty kind-hearted dog with soulful eyes and good demeanor. The dog wanders the streets (even waiting to cross them), searches for food, receives pats on the head from any passerby willing to chance it, and sleeps wherever it feels like—even if it's in the middle of a road, about a foot away from passing traffic.

Zeytin and its friends have this kind of easy, risk-free life because it's against the law in Turkey to euthanize strays (The government tried in the early 20th century, but the public outcry was so intense that the practice stopped, although there's a continual push to bring the policy back). Stray dogs are tagged and sent out to live in peace.

Some of the other dogs include Nazar, which may be even friendlier toward humans, and a puppy, named Kartal by a worker at the construction site where Kartal's mother cares for her litter. Lo follows these animals at low angles, as if we're right there, looking at them from a perspective like the dogs' own. They sleep, do their business, play team up, eat, and fight once twice, and Lo adds some title cards quoting a couple of famous philosophers and their beliefs about dogs, as well as the example they could provide for humans.

Humans, though, are relegated to the backdrop. A few conversations are briefly overheard. A protest unfolds about an upcoming election. The dogs don't care, of course, and little, it seems, does Lo.

More care is given to a group of Syrian refugees, who live lives even more uncertain than the dogs. The kids care for the dogs, bringing them along to beg for money or while they huff glue at the construction site. The dogs get to stay when someone catches them. The kids have to leave.

The juxtaposition of how ordinary people and, later, the government treat these displaced kids against the treatment of the dogs is the sad irony of Stray. If Lo looked up a bit more, that might have hit harder.

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