Some Kurdish orphan teens and children struggle to survive amid the war in a refugee camp at the Iraqi border with Turkey, days before the fall of Saddam Hussein and the U.S.
invasion.
“Satellite”, a communications expert who sells off land mines to buy weapons, meets Agrin
and her brother Hengov, who has prophetic dreams, has lost both arms and carries
"Riga", a small blind kid, who seems to be the youngest of
brothers.
Soon we will
know the truth: Riga is the son of Agrin, born after she was raped the day that her
parents were killed, that’s why she hates him and would like to abandon him.
Hengov, however, loves and protects him despite his limitations. Satellite,
who ignores the story and likes Agrin, tries to conquer her heart by helping the
child.
Why watch this film? Because despite having a painful story, at no time it falls into being
lame or pathetic. Children in war, maimed, hopelessly compelled to be
adults offer a context difficult to make into good movies.
But what the
director Bahman Gobadi manages is admirable: he does not state a point of view,
does not preach, and just let those kids have their lives and their terrible
reality be reflected in sober and compelling images.
There are always two attitudes to face the horror: one is shut up and accept the defeat of
the art, the other is not stay silent and try to give it a sense, a shape, say it
in order not to succumb to the total inhumanity.
This last
one is what Bahman Gobadi achieves in "Turtles Can Fly", a lesson in
humanity and beauty amid the horror. What is in this movie to remember?
There
are so many images: the laughter of Riga, the devotion of Pashow for Satellite,
the desolate and beautiful face of Agrin, the mountains that seem from another
world.
Hard to
choose, but let's stay with one: Hengov, the armless, who vainly tries to save Riga
from the bottom of the lake.
Is there something to forget about the film?
Unfortunately, we cannot forget anything of what we are being told in this movie: everything was true and remains true.
Director:
Bahman Ghobadi
Writer:
Bahman Ghobadi
Stars: Soran
Ebrahim, Avaz Latif and Saddam Hossein Feysal
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