Turtles Can Fly (2005)

Pretty Good

When a movie has you begging for it to end not even half way through it's pure crap. We've all seen this movie and this characters millions of times, nothing new in it. Don't waste your time.

Good films always raise compelling questions, whether the format is fiction or documentary fact.

It is a whirlwind of delight --- attractive actors, stunning couture, spectacular sets and outrageous parties.

An extraordinary movie. This collaboration between Iran and Iraq for me is about the human spirit. But not in a fist in the air way. It is about how humans keep going, no matter what hand they are dealt, but also about how sometimes it is just too much to go on. The film is set as it says in the beginning in " Kurdistan , Iraq : Turkish Border — a few weeks before the U.S. Iraq war." The main characters are children. all of who whom give performances so natural, that it does them a disservice to cal them performances. They don't act. They ARE. Although reading the artcle linked to below. it is clear that much of this is down to the masterful direction of Bahman Ghobadi Many of the children, are seen to have lost limbs, and in the case of one small child, his sight. But the director never asks you too feel pity for them. Is it a bleak movie, an uplifting movie, It's both. It's also pretty funny. There is one scene,which I thought the movie could have done without. It is the most suspenseful scene in the movie, where the lead character tries to save another character. I just found it a little out of place. But I'll forgive it. NOTE. I was wondering if these children were actors. It seems not. See the article at http://homemcr.org/film/turtles-can-fly/ which explains that they were relieving their own experiences. Although obviously not in all cases.

Review: I liked movie because it gave me a different perspective on Iraqi people and villages. American media portrays any country that the US is fighting with a negative light, and Iraq is subject to the propaganda. When you watch the war through the eyes of the Iraqi people in their home country, it really shows how much people struggle. There were so many mine and bombing victims, who were also mainly children, which is one example of how bad a war can be to a country. Limbless children are a very good way of showing the struggle that the Iraq Wars brought to their country. Another perspective that this movie gave me was the economic situation of some Iraqi towns. They were only able to buy one satellite even with everyone in their town giving money for it. The town that satellite lived in was very small and had few houses in it. Most of the people either lived in tents or inside the hollow shell of tanks. Overall, this movie gave me a Global Perspective on the struggles that Iraq went through during the Iraq War.

This is the film I wish I could force the right people in the right positions of power to watch. Seen by the right people I believe it could wield the same impact it had on me on them.Don't read too many reviews, just watch this film and be thankful filmmakers as brave as Ghobadi exist to challenge the world in the way he does.Brave. On a different level. I love Iranian filmmakers.After watching this film I had a long and intense love affair with Iranian film. I admire any artist who can create something out of nothing, which Iranian artists do. Watch this film, pass it on, change the world.

Great literature, great film challenges us, provokes us, pulls on our heart, stays in our minds, and haunts us to at least be aware of our world, and those "other" people living in it. The way "Schindler's List" did all of that to me, for me ~ last night came "Turtles Can Fly", a 2004 film about Refugee Camp Kurds living at the Iraq-Turkey Border during the American invasion of Iraq. As the much more eloquent writers here on IMDb have shared, this is not a political movie making statements about America, Turkey, or Iraq...it is a view through children's eyes, living mid-hope, mid-despair. I wanted to look away....and could not. Like the Pulitzer Award-Winning Novel, "Andersonville" by MacKinlay Kantor, which I had to put down at various points, I was held prisoner for 98 minutes by these child actors. When I read afterward that these were real refugee camp children, led in this film by the talented director, I was even more amazed. 16 International Film Critic Awards...one of the saddest movies I have ever seen. Cannot recommend it to anyone who is not willing to be opened up....like a coconut. I say that with a smirk, but also a very deep ache...