Intends to let the world know something about the Kurdish people and their suffering.
Turtles Can Fly (2005)
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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
It's a political work, but Ghobadi's film is more in search of the common experience of humanity.
Whatever your feelings about the war in Iraq, it's impossible to not be moved by the displaced, maimed and killed children left in the conflict's wake.
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.
Bahman Ghobadi's third film presents a harsh account of war, displacement and deprivation that is saved from utter bleakness by a tough, earthy lyricism.
There are limits to this approach, both as a strategy of emotional exploitation and an instrument of political analysis. It is simply too easy to weep over maimed children.
[Ghobadi's] use of children in peril ... crosses the uneasy line between realism and overt manipulation. Still, it's impossible to deny the sheer shivery force of the film.
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.
It hits and hurts the eyes (the rainy days are lousy enough, but the skies of royal blue, above such grief, feel especially insulting), and it also seems to bleed straight out of the headlines.
The tragedy of these lives is moving, but, to some small extent, the tragedy is counterbalanced by Ghobadi in showing that somehow humanity survives in these kids
Further proof that Ghobadi is one of those great artists that comes forth during his people's time of crisis.
Turtles is ultimately a bleak, disturbing film. Yet, it’s a portrait that provides a needed break from the rising tide of suffocating media.
Its sophisticated world-view is a gentle rebuke to provincial views of the world in American cinema.
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|---|---|
| 36% 36% | Angels & Demons |
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| 95% 95% | Star Trek |
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| Tomatometer Percentage | Movie |
|---|---|
| 83% 83% | Harry Potter and the H… |
| 67% 67% | Public Enemies |
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