Filmed in Istanbul and across Turkey from 2017 to 2019, Stray follows three dogs—Zeytin, Nazar, and Kartal—as they roam around with seemingly no care in the world. The country is unique; after citizens pushed back against attempts to remove the country's animal population, it is now illegal to euthanize or hold any stray dog captive. This leaves countless dogs to live free and make Istanbul their own. Stray initially made me think of the 2018 dog-centric documentary Los Reyes, which attempted to pull off a similar concept. It almost entirely focused on the dogs, with occasional conversations happening off-screen in audio form only. That doc reduced the people of the place itself to background noise. Thankfully, that is not the case in Stray. Instead, director Elizabeth Lo uses the dogs and their view of the world as an entry point to see Istanbul's people. Culture and community are ever-present even as the documentary approaches its peoples' stories subtly. by Chase Hutchinson