Turtles Can Fly (2005)

one of my absolute favorites!

Horrible, fascist and poorly acted

It's not great by any means, but it's a pretty good movie that didn't leave me filled with regret for investing time in it.

It is interesting even when nothing much happens, which is for most of its 3-hour running time. Read full review

An extraordinary movie. This collaboration between Iran and Iraq for me is about the human spirit. But not in a fist in the air way. It is about how humans keep going, no matter what hand they are dealt, but also about how sometimes it is just too much to go on. The film is set as it says in the beginning in " Kurdistan , Iraq : Turkish Border — a few weeks before the U.S. Iraq war." The main characters are children. all of who whom give performances so natural, that it does them a disservice to cal them performances. They don't act. They ARE. Although reading the artcle linked to below. it is clear that much of this is down to the masterful direction of Bahman Ghobadi Many of the children, are seen to have lost limbs, and in the case of one small child, his sight. But the director never asks you too feel pity for them. Is it a bleak movie, an uplifting movie, It's both. It's also pretty funny. There is one scene,which I thought the movie could have done without. It is the most suspenseful scene in the movie, where the lead character tries to save another character. I just found it a little out of place. But I'll forgive it. NOTE. I was wondering if these children were actors. It seems not. See the article at http://homemcr.org/film/turtles-can-fly/ which explains that they were relieving their own experiences. Although obviously not in all cases.

Review: I liked movie because it gave me a different perspective on Iraqi people and villages. American media portrays any country that the US is fighting with a negative light, and Iraq is subject to the propaganda. When you watch the war through the eyes of the Iraqi people in their home country, it really shows how much people struggle. There were so many mine and bombing victims, who were also mainly children, which is one example of how bad a war can be to a country. Limbless children are a very good way of showing the struggle that the Iraq Wars brought to their country. Another perspective that this movie gave me was the economic situation of some Iraqi towns. They were only able to buy one satellite even with everyone in their town giving money for it. The town that satellite lived in was very small and had few houses in it. Most of the people either lived in tents or inside the hollow shell of tanks. Overall, this movie gave me a Global Perspective on the struggles that Iraq went through during the Iraq War.

An eye opening, depressing and amazing movie showing the human cost of war, as depicted by the harrowing existence of Kurdish refugees and orphans living near the Iraq-turkey border on the eve of the US invasion of Iraq.This award winning "staged" documentary is a tough go, but the performances from all the children are pretty mind blowing and you can't help but get caught up in their day to day existence.The movie follows one boy known as "Satellite" who seemingly runs the whole show at the camp; wheeling and dealing and organizing everything including the purchase of a satellite dish, weapons for the village elders, and setting up work details for the other children which often includes digging for land mines and comments like this from potential employers; "Most of these kids don't even have hands how can they work for me?" We also learn the past of a young girl, her blind baby and armless brother -who is apparently able to see the future. Their story is the most maddening and heartbreaking. 02.09.14

On the Kurdish refugee camp on the Iraqi-Turkish border, the boy Satellite (Soran Ebrahim) is the leader of the kids. He commands them to clear and collect American undetonated minefields in the fields to sell them in the street market and he installs antennae for the villagers. He goes with the local leader to buy a parabolic antenna to learn the news about the eminent American invasion but nobody speaks English and Satellite that knows a couple of words is assigned to translate the Fox News. When the orphans Agrin (Avaz Latif) and her armless brother Hengov (Hiresh Feysal Rahman) and the blind toddler Riga come from Halabcheh to the camp, Satellite falls in an unrequited love for Egrin. But the girl is traumatized by a cruel raid in her home, when her parents were murdered and she was raped. She wants to leave Riga behind and travel with her brother Hengov to another place, but he does not agree with her intention. "Lakposhtha parvaz mikonand", a.k.a. "Turtles can Fly", is a heartbreaking movie with a war that is not shown on TV News where the victims are the children. The cast is formed by real refugees and is impressive the top-notch performances of the children. The title is curious since turtles lives on the water and on the land but do not fly. However, it is a metaphor since Bahman Ghobadi compares this reptile that moves from water to the land with the homeless Kurds that migrate moving forward. The fly might be a metaphor for the liberation from Saddam Hussein's regime. My vote is eight.Title (Brazil): "Tartarugas Podem Voar" ("Turtles can Fly")