Made possible by a nationwide ‘no kill, no capture’ law protecting stray animals, Turkey’s stray dogs live in a sort of semi-harmony with people, their parallel societies often peaceably overlapping and intertwining. This is most pronounced in Istanbul, where government and community organisations have developed a sophisticated infrastructure for humane treatment of the city’s hundreds of thousands of street dogs. Their freewheeling lives were the subject of Stray (2020), a critically acclaimed feature-length documentary by Elizabeth Lo, a Hong Kong-born filmmaker based in Los Angeles. Shot in coordination with Stray, this short documentary takes viewers to the other side of the country, where strays in the ancient city of Kars roam, fight and and are occasionally interrupted by their human neighbours. Following a group of dogs as they wander in and out of Muslim rituals at a nearby mosque – and occasionally bark alongside its calls to prayer – Lo’s observational short provides a unique view of the human and canine worlds alike.
Director: Elizabeth Lo
Producer: Shane Boris
Co-producers: Ceylan Carhoglu, Zeynep Koprulu
Associate producer: Zeynep Aslanoba
Executive producer: Ina Fichman
Sound designer: Ernst Karel
Composer: Ali Helnwein
Colorist: Robert Arnold
video
Family life
One family’s harrowing escape from postwar Vietnam, told in a poignant metaphor
10 minutes
video
Fairness and equality
Visit the small Texas community that lives in the shadow of SpaceX launches
14 minutes
video
Film and visual culture
Our world has very different contours when a millimetre is blown up to a full screen
8 minutes
video
War and peace
A frontline soldier’s moving account of the fabled ‘Christmas truce’ of 1914
12 minutes
video
History of technology
Replicating Shakespearean-era printing brings its own dramas and comedy
19 minutes
video
Animals and humans
The wild tale of a young animal keeper, an angry tiger and a torn circle net
10 minutes
video
Technology and the self
Why single Chinese women are freezing their eggs in California
24 minutes
video
Beauty and aesthetics
Can you see music in this painting? How synaesthesia fuelled Kandinsky’s art
10 minutes
video
The ancient world
Petty squabbles and bloody battles – the life of an ancient Roman soldier
18 minutes