By showing image after startling image, Bahman Ghobadi makes us question everything we think we know.
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
Turtles Can Fly is humane, funny, and visually acute, but it never shies away from the ugliness that mars these innocent lives.
Too often makes you wish the movie theater was equipped with a fast-forward button.
Bahman Ghobadi's new drama about Iraq's children of war shows us the scenes lurking behind the headlines and sound bites.
A film whose strength derives from the stark power of its cinematic imagery.
I wish everyone who has an opinion on the war in Iraq could see Turtles Can Fly.
As beautifully shot, by cinematographer Shahriar Assadi, as it is sensitively written and directed and wonderfully acted.
Superb acting and authentic details energize this rare Iran/Iraq coproduction.
Perhaps, at this time, there's nowhere else on earth that could produce a picture of these wartime realities within the native population of Northern Iraq.
With his third effort, Ghobadi has bridged that distance and delivered his most heartbreakingly touching and profoundly humanist film.
A welcome, even essential adjustment to the images of Iraq seen in daily news reports.
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
You'll see more accomplished films, but you won't see many that have more heartbreaking impact.
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| 36% 36% | Angels & Demons |
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| Tomatometer Percentage | Movie |
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| 32% 32% | Terminator Salvation |
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