Wanderers among us

Comparing illegal migrants to stray dogs might be offensive or enlightening, depending on whom you ask. Director Elizabeth Lo makes a good case for the latter in Stray, an hourlong-plus foreign dog-umentary (available on Amazon Prime) that follows three canines in Turkey over three years.

With cameras at dog-level and no narration, Lo allows Zeytin, Nazar, and Kartal to tell their own story. They endlessly wander the streets of Istanbul, some days wolfing down handouts and getting pats on the head, other days diving into dumpsters and tussling with dangerous wild dog packs. With no one to love them, their only comfort each night is finding a place to sleep where they won’t be chased away. Glue-sniffing teenage Syrian refugees come in and out of the dogs’ lives, but it’s not long before the teens are hounded off the streets, treated no better than the pooches.

In a sense, the film isn’t just about dogs or migrants but humanity’s unwillingness to connect with the disconnected—loners, orphans, foreigners, or singles in a sea of married families. Director Lo helps the viewer see these restless wanderers, both human and canine.

Two problems with this unrated documentary give me pause—a dozen subtitled expletives about dog excrement, and the dog-level cameras that incorporate dog-level attention spans (squirrel!) and nauseatingly swift camera turns.