Istanbul through cat eyes: In her new documentary film Kedi (Turkish for cat), Istanbul-born director Ceyda Torun tries to tell the story of a fast-changing city through the eyes of one of its most important inhabitants: the street cats of Istanbul (watch the trailer, runtime 2:00). For thousands of years, the people of the city cared for the cats that roam its streets. Even during Ottoman times, “many houses were constructed with cat doors,” according to CityLab, and “the pious cared for cats through local charitable foundations” known as vakif, says The Economist. Istanbul, a port city and an ancient trade hub, is home to hundreds of thousands of cats from all over the world who most probably made their way in as stowaways on cargo ships. “But as Istanbul has grown from village to town to crowded megalopolis” the space for its street cats and the people who continue to care for them has dwindled in direct proportion.

Torun trails the lives of seven of the city’s street cats and their caretakers to explore the impact of the city’s expansion and gentrification on people’s relationship with it, with each other, and the creatures that live around them. “Today in Istanbul we are divided into mental, cultural and political ghettos,” Elif Shafak writes in The Spectator. “This city of earthquakes and fires has become the site of greedy expansion and gentrification without proper urban planning.” Torun herself admits after her research that the less greenery and soil there is in the city as it “is flattened and paved over, the more inhospitable it becomes to the cats” and the people.

And speaking of cats: The guy with the most influence over the videos that make it big on BuzzFeed thinks this is the best internet video ever. Yes, it involves cats.