Yusuf and Kenan is rooted in one of Istanbul’s continuing social problems—the thousands of street children, ranging in age from six or seven upward, who have migrated into this metropolis of twelve million. Some of these children are in flight from abusive parents while others, with their parents’ approval, seek an alternative to rural poverty. In the back streets of the city they form new "families" focused on begging or crime or mutual assistance. Kavur’s film follows the story of two brothers who witness the murder of their father and then flee to the city seeking a relative they ultimately can not find. Kavur employs an economy of expression that unobtrusively engages us in the story of how the brothers set out to acquire a family of their own in the abandoned cars and shacks of the city.