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Turtles Can Fly

DramaWar

Near the Iraqi-Turkish border on the eve of an American invasion, refugee children, like 13-year-old Kak (Ebrahim), gauge and await their fate.

Year

2005

Duration

1h 38m

IMDb

8.0

Hero Poster

Cast

Bahman Ghobadi

Director

SE

Soran Ebrahim

Satellite

HF

Hiresh Feysal Rahman

Hengov

Cast

Bahman Ghobadi

Director

SE

Soran Ebrahim

Satellite

HF

Hiresh Feysal Rahman

Hengov

AL

Avaz Latif

Agrin

AR

Abdol Rahman Karim

Riga

SH

Saddam Hossein Feysal

Pashow

AZ

Ajil Zibari

Shirkooh

DE

Dijvar Elban

Dijwar

Emre Tetikel

Ali Reza

Bahman Ghobadi

Writer

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Comments

10 Comments

Linus StanleyApr 4, 2026

I didn't enjoy the movie. it's not worth it

Lamin K. BojangAug 23, 2024

Roro_Ał219💕Aug 23, 2024

SebrinFeb 15, 2023

On the Kurdish refugee camp on the Iraqi-Turkish border, the boy Satellite (Soran Ebrahim) is the leader of the kids. He commands them to clear and collect American undetonated minefields in the fields to sell them in the street market and he installs antennae for the villagers. He goes with the local leader to buy a parabolic antenna to learn the news about the eminent American invasion but nobody speaks English and Satellite that knows a couple of words is assigned to translate the Fox News. When the orphans Agrin (Avaz Latif) and her armless brother Hengov (Hiresh Feysal Rahman) and the blind toddler Riga come from Halabcheh to the camp, Satellite falls in an unrequited love for Egrin. But the girl is traumatized by a cruel raid in her home, when her parents were murdered and she was raped. She wants to leave Riga behind and travel with her brother Hengov to another place, but he does not agree with her intention. "Lakposhtha parvaz mikonand", a.k.a. "Turtles can Fly", is a heartbreaking movie with a war that is not shown on TV News where the victims are the children. The cast is formed by real refugees and is impressive the top-notch performances of the children. The title is curious since turtles lives on the water and on the land but do not fly. However, it is a metaphor since Bahman Ghobadi compares this reptile that moves from water to the land with the homeless Kurds that migrate moving forward. The fly might be a metaphor for the liberation from Saddam Hussein's regime. My vote is eight. Title (Brazil): "Tartarugas Podem Voar" ("Turtles can Fly")

🥀Oumaima_zarrouq🥀Feb 15, 2023

A chronicle of the hardships visited upon Kurdish children in a refugee camp near the Turkish border during the war against Saddam, as well as an account, to some extent, of those they visit upon each other, "Turtles Can Fly" is undeniably the work of a cinematic master. Just about every frame - whether of bleak, oddly beautiful landscape or of anguished or amused faces which speak volumes - ties one's eyes to the screen. Similarly, scenes of horror - the rape of the character Agrin or the young Kurdish leader Satellite's effort to save a blind child from a land mine - are pretty nearly unbearable in their dramatic intensity. Also, the director/writer is happily unjaded enough to conceive of characters, in this case children, who are capable of fertile and generous emotion without himself tumbling into patently false representations. In this regard, the armless brother Henkov's love for Agrin's child or the loyalty of one of Satellite's tiniest followers especially stand out. Yet all in all this film is oddly unsatisfying, and the problem, I suspect, has to do with the director/writer's judgment and consequently skewed focus. Concentrating on the mere phenomenology of war and the sufferings of children in it, Gohbadi pretty much dismisses larger causes or courses, so that his vision is reduced to that of TV news. In other words, any war is hell, as images of dismemberment make clear, and all sides are equally culpable because of the havoc and suffering war wreaks on private life. This is an age old and surely possible donee, and when handled with subtlety and depth as it was, say, in Euripides' "Trojan Women," it's beyond reproach. In Ghobadi's film, however, we appear to wind up with the peevish, overly simple, indeed Princess Diana-like judgment that the greatest cause of evil in the lives of displaced Kurdish children is remnant land mines. The mountains rumble, and all that's produced, unfortunately, is this ridiculous mouse.

Stephanie Andres EncFeb 15, 2023

We didn't find this movie harrowing or upsetting, in fact the characters didn't move us emotionally at all. As 3 mothers we were expecting to have to resort to tissues but found none of the characters were sufficiently developed to feel any empathy even in their most dire scenes. Having said this we were all glad to have seen the movie but wish we had been emotionally moved rather than looking on to lives which are so different but having no feelings for the characters. The photography is superb, the storyline a bit disjointed and the actors (amateur) haven't quite got it. I am surprised it is so highly rated and much preferred other 'foreign' films which gave you an insight into others lives such as 'Osama' and 'Weeping Camel'.

GoyaMenorFeb 15, 2023

'Lakposhtha hâm parvaz mikonand' (TURTLES CAN FLY) takes your breath away. Not only is the story by writer/director Bahman Ghobadi timely, it is one of the most devastatingly real examinations of the people of Iraq in the days before the American preemptive attack: it is more real because the entire story is told through the eyes of children. The action takes place in Kurdistan, Iraq at the Turkish border. The temporary refugee camp in the hills is occupied by children who make money by gathering live mines and used shells from the military conditions under Saddam Hussein's rule. They struggle to make deals for a satellite dish so that they can provide coverage of the war for the elders (they are not allowed to watch Hussein's forbidden channels!), they form rival groups for the monetary aspects of weapons gathering, and they rely on a leader by the name of Satellite (Soran Ebrahim) who appears to be the oldest of the children. His 'associates' are the crippled boy Pashow (Saddam Hossein Feysal) able to run as fast as even Satellite on a bicycle with just one leg and a crutch; Shirkooh (Ajil Zibari) whose tears flow easily; Hengov (Hiresh Feysal Rahman) who lost his arms to the land mines and has the ability to foresee the future; and the mysterious Agrin (Avaz Latif) the sole girl who with Hengov is caring for a blind two year orphan Riga (Abdol Rahman Karim). The children, all orphans, are on the watch for war they know will come, watch and listen for the Americans to arrive, and struggle for survival under Satellite's organized control. Agrin wishes to escape it all, pleads with Hengov to return to their home, but Hengov will not leave the child Riga. As the tension mounts tragedies occur, touching all of the children. But the manner in which the children finally observe as Hussein's statue topples and as the American troops distribute 'hopeful' fliers from helicopters, events bringing an end to their temporary refuge camp status, is heart-wrenchingly portrayed. The film is full of passion. The young 'actors' are splendid: how Ghobadi found such children to play tough parts in such a wholly naturalistic way is a true feat of genius. This is a powerful, disturbing, yet ultimately beautiful film that deserves everyone's close attention. In Kurdish with English subtitles. Highly recommended! Grady Harp

Twambilile GhambiFeb 15, 2023

I did not enjoy this movie at all and wouldn't recommend it to anyone,especially young children and preteens. I realize war is brutal, especially to children but I see no reason children here in this country should see this movie. What would be the point in it? Would they really care that there are kids that live lives shown in the movie? They may grimace at some of the scenes, go "yuk" or something to that effect and as soon as they leave the theatre it'll be forgotten. If the movie was made to make people feel guilty or something well it won't work. We all know about the lives of people in Iraq or Iran. We all know how they've lived under brutal oppression and I'm sure many people, including young kids, have watched videos on their computer about bombings, beheadings and all that. The truth be known, they're not much bothered by it either. It's just like their video games they play to them. So what purpose the movie is supposed to serve I don't know. It's a gloomy, depressing movie and I will not let my kids watch it. They will have their share of trauma and turmoil as it is in this world. They don't need to see crap like that.

nadianakaiFeb 15, 2023

Expecting another bleak, minimalist Iranian film I was totally unprepared for the exuberance and unforgettable power of Kurdish director Bohman Ghobadi's (Time For Drunken Horses) Turtles Can Fly. A joint Iran-Iraq venture, the film is the first narrative film to be shot in Iraq following the fall of Saddam Hussein and is a view of war from the inside of a Kurdish refugee camp close to the Iraq-Turkish border just prior to and during the U.S. invasion. There is no overt political message in the film, yet the hundreds of parent-less children in the film, many with broken limbs from exploding land mines, tell a story of war that transcends politics. In a country where there remains an estimated 50 million land mines, the marketing of unexploded land mines can be a lucrative business. At least, it is a means of survival for a thirteen-year old nicknamed "Satellite" who organizes groups of youngsters to defuse land mines and sell them to arms dealers for food. Assisted by friends Pashow (Saddam Hossein Feysal) and Shirkooh (Ajil Zibari), Satellite (Soran Ebrahim) is a cocky but natural leader who received his nickname from his ability to install satellite dishes in an area where the villagers are hungry for news about the upcoming U.S. invasion. The children live in a world that has no electricity and no schools and where watching television with a satellite dish is a luxury, especially when many of the channels are forbidden. Because satellite knows some English, he is asked to translate news broadcasts for the old men in the village but refuses, saying his job is only to install. Humorously, the elders cringe when he switches the channel to MTV. A potential threat to Satellite's power is an armless orphan Hengov (Hiresh Feysal Rahman) whose ability to defuse land mines with his teeth lead to a struggle for power between the two. Hengov also has the ability to predict the future and, as their relationship warms, he ends up feeding information that enables Satellite to solidify his power over the children. One telling scene that Hengov predicts is when an American helicopter flies over the children clustered on a hill and drops leaflets saying that Americans will make this country a paradise, a hollow boast as it turned out. Satellite is attracted to Hengov's sister Agrin (Avaz Latif) who cares for Riga (Abdol Rahman Karim), a sightless two-year old boy, later revealed to be the result of a rape by Iraqi soldiers during a skirmish in which her parents were killed and her brother lost his limbs. Agrin is a haunting presence in the film and her ultimate acts of desperation bookend the film. Turtles Can Fly is a remarkable work of commitment from Ghobadi, an assistant director on Abbas Kiarostami's The Wind Will Carry Us. He wants the world to know the plight of millions of stateless Kurds who are at the mercy of politicians who support them when it suits their purposes and oppose them when it does not. Coming on the wake of Kore'eda's Nobody Knows, another film about abandoned children, Ghobadi's film is both a celebration of the innocence of children and a warning about the dangers they face from dictators, fascists, and over-zealous democrats. Far better than any CNN or El Jazeera news account possibly could relate, the story of the war is written in their soulful faces.

﮼عبسي،سنانFeb 15, 2023

It's an excellent work Ghobadi did. When the movie finished I couldn't leave the chair for the next 10 minutes. I ran to the toilet to finish my crying. It reminded me of how little I'm aware what's going on in the world, even next door to where I was born and my own childhood.It reminded me that the humanity in me hasn't died yet but needed to be woken up. It's about a tough life where the kids are in charge of adults and more mature than them. The movie gives a clear picture of a bunch on refugee Kurds on their own land. Ghobadi cleverly draws the picture of a disaster in the Middle East: The Kurds, who has been on that land for thousand of years but still don't own a flag and their struggles between Turkey, Iraq,Iran and America. Any one, who is interested in a bit of information about what's going on over there as well as the other problems in the area should see this movie. A black comedy in some ways when you can't help smiling while crying.