It's a political work, but Ghobadi's film is more in search of the common experience of humanity.
Turtles Can Fly (2005)
Tomatometer
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Reviews Counted: 68
Fresh: 61
Rotten:7
Average Rating: 7.8/10
Consensus: Set in Iraq after the fall of Saddam, Turtles Can Fly is being hailed as extraordinary, moving, and lyrical.
Theatrical Release:Feb 18, 2005 Limited
Box Office: $213,047
Synopsis: "Turtles Can Fly" is the third feature from internationally acclaimed Iranian filmmaker Bahman Ghobadi ("A Time For Drunken Horses"). Written, directed and produced by Ghobadi, the film features of... "Turtles Can Fly" is the third feature from internationally acclaimed Iranian filmmaker Bahman Ghobadi ("A Time For Drunken Horses"). Written, directed and produced by Ghobadi, the film features of cast of local non-actor children. "Turtles Can Fly" is set in Ghobadi’s native Kurdistan on the eve of the American invasion of Iraq. Thirteen-year-old Soran (Soran Ebrahim) is known as “Satellite,” for his installation of dishes and antennae for local villages looking for news of Saddam. He is the dynamic leader of the children, organizing the dangerous but necessary sweeping and clearing of the minefields. He then arranges trade-ins for the unexploded mines. The industrious Satellite falls for an unlikely orphan (Avaz Latif), a sad-faced girl traveling with her brother Henkov (Hirsh Feyssal), who appears to have the gift of clairvoyance. The siblings are care-taking a three-year-old, whose connection to the pair is discovered as harsh truths are unveiled. The devastation to this land and its inhabitants is revealed in the matter-of-fact perspective of the children and is equally displayed with every poignant detail of its unbearable nature. The exquisitely haunting mountains play backdrop to violence and tragedy, but at the same time the heart and humor of the children is an undeniable force. "Turtles Can Fly" won the Golden Shell at San Sebastian and the Silver Bear at Chicago and is the Iranian entry to the Academy for 2004 Foreign Film consideration. -- © IFC Films [More]
Starring: Soran Ebrahim, Avaz Latif, Hirsh Feyssal
Starring: Soran Ebrahim, Avaz Latif, Hirsh Feyssal
Director: Bahman Ghobadi
Director: Bahman Ghobadi
Screenwriter: Bahman Ghobadi
Producer: Bahman Ghobadi
Composer: Houssein Alizadeh
Studio: IFC Films
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Reviews for Turtles Can Fly
Una película conmovedora, sugestiva y poética, donde gran parte de la convicción proviene de sus increíbles actores no profesionales.
Intends to let the world know something about the Kurdish people and their suffering.
Despite its fanciful title, Turtles Can Fly leads viewers into a slough of despond, one in which not just hope is strangled but virtually any possibility for simple human kindness.
Bahman Ghobadi works best on pain and suffering; he’s passionate about filming his people (Kurds) from the inside of the society, with the focus on their miseries
Turtles Can Fly is humane, funny, and visually acute, but it never shies away from the ugliness that mars these innocent lives.
Riveting, depressing and eye-opening, Turtles Can Fly is a movie about an Iraq that the news hasn't shown us.
Turtles Can Fly is the first feature shot in Iraq after the fall of Hussein, and writer/director Ghobadi, an Iranian, melds grimly authentic settings with a peculiar type of magic realism.
We realize how pitiful the situation is, how hopeless and desperate life has become for these people. No matter what we thought about Iraq, we see things a little differently.
A welcome, even essential adjustment to the images of Iraq seen in daily news reports.
Director Bahman Ghobadi takes us into the day-to-day despair of youngsters pinned down by war and poverty.
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