YouTube Red To Stoke Internet’s Cat Craze With Turkish Documentary ‘Kedi’

There’s nothing that the internet loves more than cat videos, and with its next feature-length documentary, YouTube Red is giving viewers their fill.

The subscription service has partnered with the late Beastie Boy Adam Yauch’s New York production company Oscilloscope Laboratories to release Kedi, which chronicles the lives of seven street cats in Istanbul. The film, which has become the third highest-grossing foreign language documentary of all time at $2.4 million and counting — and which will continue to be available in select theaters — arrives on YouTube Red on May 10.

Kedi explores the ways in which alley cats have become essential to the fabric of Istanbul’s culture, acting as mirrors of a sort to the locals who regularly interact with them, according to a release. The film, much of which is shot from a cat’s perspective, premiered at the Istanbul Independent Film Festival earlier this year. It was produced by Ceyda Torun and Charlie Wuppermann through their Termite Films venture, and was executive produced by Thomas Podstawski

and Gregor Kewel. Torun directed Kedi, while Wuppermann served as cinematographer.

Check out a trailer, which introduces the seven distinct feline stars of the film, including ‘The Hustler’, ‘The Social Butterfly’, and ‘The Psycho’, right here:

“We know the YouTube audience has a never-ending fascination with all things cats,” said YouTube’s global head of original content, Susanne Daniels. “Ceyda Torun and Charlie Wuppermann’s visually stunning documentary…has all the right elements to be incredibly popular on YouTube Red.”

Adds Torun: “Everyone who formed a meaningful relationship with these creatures has come to experience life and their part in it differently. Cats have become synonymous with [Istanbul] itself, ultimately, embodying its soul. This film is, in many ways, a love letter to those cats and the city.”