rating:
(out of
4 stars)Iran, France, Iraq; 2004
Directed by Bahman Ghobadi; produced by Babak Amini, Hamid Karim Batin Ghobadi, Hamid Ghavami, Bahman Ghobadi; written by Bahman Ghobadi
Starring Soran Ebrahim, Avaz Latif, Saddam Hossein Feysal, Hiresh Feysal Rahman, Abdol Rahman Karim, Ajil Zibari
'Turtles Can Fly' is a terrific film that uses a fictional story to show the conditions of the Kurdish people living in a refugee camp in Iraq near the Turkish border. The film starts just before the US invasion of Iraq and ends after that invasion. One thing we see immediately is that life will not be better for these Kurdish people after the US have liberated, if that is the right word, the country of Iraq. Before the invasion life seems very hard, after it nothing seems changed.
The story is told mainly through two young teenagers. One of them is Satellite (Soran Ebrahim), who is named after his ability to give a poor village the news due a satellite dish. (And a television of course.) He is like a young business man, using his knowledge to make the best of it. Other children like him, some even worship him. He can order people to do something and they will obey. The other main character is a teenage refugee named Henkov who has lost both his arms and it is told he can see into the future. Actually his sister Agrin (Avaz Latif) is the other central figure. Together Henkov and Agrin take care of a child. Agrin wants to leave the child behind and go away with Henkov, hoping their lives will be better elsewhere. Satellite likes Agrin so he grabs every opportunity to do something for her.
An impressive thing about this film is the way it shows horrific conditions but finds a lot of humor as well. The best scene has the small child of Henkov and Agrin in the middle of a minefield and Satellite trying to get him out. It is one of the most suspenseful scenes I have seen in a long time. We can never guess the outcome. For several minutes Satellite tells the kid not to move while he is closing in. With every small move the kid made you could hear the audience react, showing they all felt the same as I. But even this scene has a lot of laughs as well. While Satellite is doing his heroic deed all other kids watch him. One of them suggests he or another kid should do it since Satellite is too important. The other kid, who already lost one leg, responds the way most people should, creating one of the funniest moments in the film.
A lot of scenes play like this. There is some real horror, especially in the scenes that explain things about Agrin who seems to have lost all hope. In between we have humor, most of the time it involves Satellite. 'Turtles Can Fly' is an impressive and compelling film. Sometimes it seems without focus, just giving us images to show a reality, but there is a conclusion and a message. Very well-acted, mostly by young kids and teenagers, all amateurs, this film is about people in a war, not about war itself.