Turtles Can Fly
Orphaned children struggle to survive in a refugee camp on the Iraq-Turkey border in the run up to the Iraq war in this stark drama.
This third feature from internationally acclaimed Iranian filmmaker Bahman Ghobadi is set in his native Kurdistan on the eve of the American invasion of Iraq. 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.
Certificate: 15
Key cast / credits:
Dir. Bahman Ghobadi
Starring Soran Ebrahim, Saddam Hossein Feysal, Avaz Latif, and Hiresh Feysal Rahman
Running time: 98mins
Release date: February 2005
Country: Iran/ Iraq
Language: Kurdish w/English subtitles
Format available: 35mm/digi
"This isn't a war movie. Rather, it's a powerful, heart-tugging portrait of the innocent victims of conflict." V.A. Musetto, New York Post
"Turtles Can Fly, is masterly: it courses before us with grace, a control that paradoxically bespeaks love and anger."
Stanley Kauffmann, The New Republic
"It is about the actual lives of refugees, who lack the luxury of opinions because they are preoccupied with staying alive in a world that has no place for them." Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times
"It's a soaring achievement, without ever leaving the ground." Michael O'Sullivan, Washington Post
"Ghobadi shows us a world where a village pond can hold both rare goldfish and unforgivable evil, and where every step is onto booby-trapped terrain." Ty Burr, Boston Globe