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Movies / On DVD / Turtles Can Fly
Turtles Can Fly

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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.

Rated: Not Rated

Runtime: 1 hr 38 mins

Genre: Dramas

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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Release:

Nov 30, 1999

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Reviews for Turtles Can Fly

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Intends to let the world know something about the Kurdish people and their suffering.

Full Review Source: Ozus' World Movie Reviews | comment 1 Comment
11/19/05
Dennis Schwartz
Dennis Schwartz
Ozus' World Movie Reviews

It's a political work, but Ghobadi's film is more in search of the common experience of humanity.

Full Review Source: Mountain Xpress (Asheville, NC) | comment 1 Comment
12/06/06
Ken Hanke
Ken Hanke
Mountain Xpress (Asheville, NC)

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.

Full Review Source: E! Online | comment Comment
02/18/05
E! Online

If only it weren't such a patchy mess of a movie.

Full Review Source: Entertainment Weekly | comment Comment
02/23/05
Entertainment Weekly
N/R

Click to read the article

Full Review Source: Boston Phoenix | comment Comment
04/23/05
Boston Phoenix

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.

Full Review Source: Kansas City Star | comment Comment
06/24/05
Kansas City Star
N/R

Click to read the article

Full Review Source: St. Louis Post-Dispatch | comment Comment
07/05/05
St. Louis Post-Dispatch
N/R

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Full Review Source: Sydney Morning Herald | comment Comment
08/19/05
Sydney Morning Herald
N/R

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Full Review Source: AV Club | comment Comment
09/26/05
AV Club
N/R

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Full Review Source: Time Out | comment Comment
02/09/06
Time Out

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Full Review Source: Empire Magazine | comment Comment
04/01/06
Empire Magazine

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.

Full Review Source: New York Times | comment Comment
02/17/05
A.O. Scott
A.O. Scott
New York Times
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

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.

Full Review Source: New York Observer | comment Comment
02/17/05
Andrew Sarris
Andrew Sarris
New York Observer
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

[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.

Full Review Source: The Stranger (Seattle, WA) | comment Comment
04/14/05
Andrew Wright
Andrew Wright
The Stranger (Seattle, WA)

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.

Full Review Source: Washington Post | comment Comment
09/26/05
Ann Hornaday
Ann Hornaday
Washington Post

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.

Full Review Source: New Yorker | comment Comment
02/01/05
Anthony Lane
Anthony Lane
New Yorker

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

Full Review Source: culturevulture.net | comment Comment
04/12/05
Arthur Lazere
Arthur Lazere
culturevulture.net

Further proof that Ghobadi is one of those great artists that comes forth during his people's time of crisis.

Full Review Source: Los Angeles Daily News | comment Comment
02/18/05
Bob Strauss
Bob Strauss
Los Angeles Daily News

Turtles is ultimately a bleak, disturbing film. Yet, it’s a portrait that provides a needed break from the rising tide of suffocating media.

Full Review Source: FilmJerk.com | comment Comment
03/30/05
Brian Orndorf
Brian Orndorf
FilmJerk.com

Its sophisticated world-view is a gentle rebuke to provincial views of the world in American cinema.

Full Review Source: Los Angeles Times | comment Comment
02/17/05
Carina Chocano
Carina Chocano
Los Angeles Times
Top Critic Icon Top Critic
 
 
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