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Turtles Can Fly

An amazing film by Bahman Ghobadi (A TIME FOR DRUNKEN HORSES) that stars Kurdish-Iraqian child non-actors and their (very rough) lives the weeks leading up to the US invasion of Iraq. Ghobadi, himself a Kurdish-Iranian, films children in a story about a Kurdish-Iraqian refugee camp.

The story follows Satellite (Soran Ebrahim), an enterprising 13-year old, who manages the children in their mine clean-up in the dangerous borderland area between Turkey and Iraq (aka Kurdistan). The village elders are trying to receive news of the impending invasion, so they enlist the help of Satellite to procure and install a satellite dish.

Soon a trio of children (seemingly two brothers and a sister) come to the camp and turn Satellite's world upside down as he falls for the sister (Avaz Latif) and competes with the, older brother, Henkov. The tragedies the trio endure prior to coming to the camp are numerous (shown in a flashback). As Henkov (Hirsch Feyssal) tries to hold his family together and deal with the possible harm of his prophetic abilities, the everyday struggles of the camp's place in Iraq plays backdrop.

Beautifully acted and amazingly directed (wow those children's eyes are FULL OF PAIN!) and without obviously choosing sides, Ghobadi has crafted a film that is the best denunciation of war I have ever seen. If you see only one anti-war movie this year, see TURTLES CAN FLY.

Opens April 15 at the Opera Plaza in San Francisco.

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