Synopsis
Turtles can fly tells the story of a group of young children near the Turkey-Iran border. They clean up mines and wait for the Saddam regime to fall.
2004 ‘کیسەڵەکانیش دەفڕن’ Directed by Bahman Ghobadi
Turtles can fly tells the story of a group of young children near the Turkey-Iran border. They clean up mines and wait for the Saddam regime to fall.
Kai oi helones boroun na petaxoun, Lakposhtha hâm parvaz mikonand, Gdyby zólwie mogly latac, Las tortugas también vuelan, Lakposhtha parvaz mikonand, لاک پشت ها هم پرواز می کنند, Kûsî Jî Dikarin Bifirin, Kaplumbağalar Da Uçar, И черепахи умеют летать, Zelvy mohou létat, Les tortues volent aussi, Skildpadder kan flyve, Tisbagalar uça bilir, Schildkröten können fliegen, As Tartarugas Tambem Voam, Skilpadder kan fly, 거북이도 난다, かめもそらをとぶ, لاکپشتها هم پرواز میکنند, Костенурките могат да летят, Želvy mohou létat, Και οι χελώνες μπορούν να πετάξουν, צבים יכולים לעוף, A teknősbékák repülhetnek, 亀も空を飛ぶ, Vėžliukai gali skraidyti, Lakposhtha Parvaz Mikonand, Gdyby żółwie mogły latać, Tartarugas podem Voar, As Tartarugas Também Voam, Kaplumbağalar da Uçar, 乌龟也会飞
Simply devastating! It is always the children who must pay the ultimate price for adults greed for oil, money, power, natural resources or political agendas!
No country that has ever installed landmines can ever claim to be religious, civilized, moral, ethical or humane without revealing themselves to be outright hypocrites!
Director Bahman Ghobadi created a film featuring real refugees with no acting pedigrees whatsoever! These children are the real deal! They're not acting so much as reliving the horrors of their lives! You can look into their faces and see the pained expressions, their innocence forever lost and at the same time you're impressed by their astounding resilience!
The realism captured on film was so devastatingly real the cast and…
A powerfully poignant and heart wrenching cinema, one which honestly documents the harsh realities and the chaotic war torn life in Iraq-Turkey bordered refugee camp, through the eyes of displaced innocent children. Despite of all the physical-emotional devastation and brutality around, the movie still manages to find hopeful humane touches of humorous moments. The performances from the entire group children was simply fantastic. The entire finale sequence takes you on a harrowing experience. It’s a MUST WATCH thought provoking anti-war drama.
While I'm laying on my bed, watching Bahman Ghobadi's Turles Can Fly and crying like it would help anything, Iraqi forces together with the help of USA and Kurdish Peshmerga forces are trying to conquer Mosul from Daesh. There's approximately 1,5 million civilians trapped inside the city and UN fears that Daesh might use them as human shields - nevertheless, it is impossible to leave or to stay. When we jump to Syria, we can hear the rumbling from the sky as Putin's air forces are dropping bombs over Aleppo, helping dictator Bashar Al-Assad who has used chemical weapons against his own people. At the same time Turkey is backing up JIhadist groups who USA supports too and at least…
86%
Agrin: "Teach them math and science."
Satellite: "They know math and science. They have to learn how to shoot now!"
All of the child actors in this movie were actual refugees. This was also the first film to be made in Iraq after the fall of Saddam Hussein.
🏆Awards: 23 wins & 7 nominations
⏳ Runtime: 93 minutes (minus credits)
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"Filmimi diktatör ve faşistlerin politikalarına kurban edilen tüm masum dünya çocuklarına ithaf etmek istiyorum."
Part of Lise's wonderful 30 Countries in 30 Days Challenge. Rest of my list is here: boxd.it/cBLo
Well you know you are doing something right when you make a movie that is pretty much 97% about kids and I, the guy who dislikes most everything by children, for children, or about children, find it absolutely riveting.
The story of a large group of displaced Iraqis near the time of the impending US invasion to get Saddam (round 2) and while there are adults around of course, this film is about the refugee children. They run the show and everything that happens in the film.
I need to talk about the lead female character here, Agrin. Incredible. She wore every single…
The first time I went to an almost empty movie theater at the age of 14 was this impactful treasure, a "foreign film" that opened my mind to new possibilities, and the images have not left my mind even if I saw it for the first time 9 years ago. This extremely powerful and realistic war feature will find the way to be unforgettable from your point of view, because it has a strong universal appeal through eyes of innocence.
92/100
I did not plan to watch this today, I actually even started ´Autumn tale´ by Eric Rohmer, but after starting it I found out there were no English subtitles and this is one of the best things that could have happened as instead I went on to watch Turtles Can Fly which has been on my watchlist for a while as I am Kurdish. I started watching it alone, then I asked my mother if she had seen it and she said that she had heard of it and I suggested that we should all just watch it together and that we did. My parents made some popcorn and we all sat down and watched it from start to finish…
الفيلم يؤكد مدى أهمية السينما للمُجمتع!
هوس السياسة والسُلطة تصنع الحرب وإذا حدثت
لن يدفع ثمنها سواء الأطفال الأبرياء 💔 ')
"لحظة يكون الموُت فيها لغة الخلاص"!
Another watch of this superb film. This was my initial review 5 years ago and my thoughts haven't changed much:
"A very difficult watch. The troubles of a group of youngsters in a Kurdish refugee camp on the Iraq / Turk border during the US "liberation" of Iraq. One of the most solemn, melancholic movies I've ever seen. It truly captures the horrors of being an isolated, nomadic group of people that have no place in their country, or any country, due to conflict and prejudice. This film has left it's mark on me, and anybody who doesn't "get" why refugees should be housed not hated should regard this as required viewing. One warning: there's not many payoffs here"
97/100
There's bleak, there's bleaker, then there's 'Haneke' (bleakest) and then comes Turtles can fly.
Set in a world that has suffered wars before - the wreckage of them is everywhere, spent shells piled like cord-wood, disabled tanks tossed together like so many discarded toys.
The elders of the village hope that great Army (American Force) will come and remove Saddam Hussein from power.
In such a hopeless world we follow around this anything-but-lonely kid Satellite, and he takes a particular shine to a pretty named Agrin. Agrin is traumatized by Saddam's soldiers, she is far beyond being impressed by anything, and is in fact suicidal. Such bleak themes with child actors is a tough nut to crack even for…