When I was about fourteen, we had a dog living with us. It was a stray that just came to us one day on the street. Strictly speaking, he jumped into our car (a Fiat 125p) when we were going somewhere and was very reluctant to leave, and when we finally managed to chase him away from the car, the dog sat right there on the pavement and waited in the empty space just vacated by the car for many hours. When we returned, he quietly got up and followed us to the stairwell, then sat by the door and remained there all night. And so, he stayed. He was rather small, but very muscular red-haired mixed-breed dog, with distinct features of a bullmastiff. His character was not easy. He was a pragmatist but found it rather difficult to restrain his fierce nature. Only my Father had his respect – and it was only towards him that the dog expressed some submission. He barely tolerated others, remaining indifferent in my Father’s absence, but he would sometimes succumb to impatience. He would then growl quietly and bare his teeth. If a person didn’t react in time, he would bite, quite aggressively. The reaction should be a swift retreat or an immediate show of force. By gripping him firmly on the neck, for example. He would then calm down and you could even see that he is relieved. As if he were grateful for getting snapped out of a trance. I failed to react quickly enough a few times and I still have scars to show for it. He liked to play wrestling. When he was tugged by the head into all directions, sometimes pinned to the ground, and sometimes when he was allowed to pin his human wrestling companion to the ground, he would growl, but in a friendly way. Even joyfully, perhaps. He was called Hałas [Noise]. He would howl and howl whenever he heard music. One day, about two years later, he disappeared.

An outstanding depiction of a dog’s life in the city: Stray. It is difficult to comprehend (for me, anyway) how it was possible to capture all those images on camera. There is so much more in there than the mastery of camera crew. A story is told here, an original one, which is made up of multiple smaller and parallel stories. Very many such stories. Or perhaps any number of them. Some can be guessed at, and as a whole, the ultimate puzzle might be slightly different for everyone. The lens is looking intensely into the dog’s mouth and allows you to see all sorts of things in it. To assume. This assumption, and also certain misunderstanding, is exactly what is the basis of this interspecies symbiosis.

Meddah continues to tell the story. The core of the story – the meeting of Şeküre and Kara – is coming up. 

The barking is a distant, slightly grotesque echo of the howling. 

(transl. Magdalena Małek-Andrzejowska)