Turtles Can Fly
| Turtles Can Fly | |
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US theatrical release poster
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| Directed by | Bahman Ghobadi |
| Produced by | Babak Amini Hamid Ghobadi Hamid Ghavami Bahman Ghobadi |
| Written by | Bahman Ghobadi |
| Starring | Soran Ebrahim Avaz Latif |
| Music by | Hossein Alizadeh |
| Cinematography | Shahriah Assadi |
| Edited by | Mostafa Kherghehpoosh Hayedeh Safiyari |
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Production
company |
Mij Film Co.
Bac Film |
| Distributed by | IFC Films (US) |
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Release date
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Running time
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97 minutes |
| Country | Iran France Iraq |
| Language | Kurdish |
| Box office | $1,075,553 |
Turtles Can Fly (Persian: لاک پشت ها هم پرواز می کنند Lakposhthâ ham parvaz mikonand, Kurdish: Kûsî Jî Dikarin Bifirin Sorani Kurdish: کیسەڵەکان دەفڕن Turkish: Kaplumbağalar Da Uçar) is a 2004 Kurdish war drama film written, produced, and directed by Bahman Ghobadi, with notable theme music composed by Hossein Alizadeh. It was the first film to be made in Iraq after the fall of Saddam Hussein.
The film is set in the Kurdish refugee camp on the Iraqi-Turkish border on the eve of the US invasion of Iraq. Thirteen-year-old Satellite (Soran Ebrahim) is known for his installation of dishes and antennae (for local villages who are looking for news of Saddam Hussein) and for his limited knowledge of English. He is the dynamic, but manipulative leader of the children, organizing the dangerous but necessary sweeping and clearing of the minefields. Many of these children are injured one way or the other, yet still maintain a boisterous prattle whenever possible, devoted to their work in spite of the vagaries of their life.
The industrious Satellite arranges trade-ins for undetonated mines. He falls for an orphan named Agrin, assisting her whenever possible in order to win her over. She is a perpetual dour-faced girl who is part bitter, part lost in thought, unable to escape the demons of the past. Traveling with her is her disabled, but very caring brother Hengov, who appears to have the gift of clairvoyance, though he seems to have a bad reputation for it. The siblings stay with a blind toddler named Riga. On course, we come to know that Agrin gave birth to him after she was gang raped by soldiers (In Agrin and Hengov's village, the girls had been killed after being raped, while the boys and their families were plain butchered. Hengov's arms had been shot as the soldiers attempted to drown both children). Throughout the film, we see how Agrin has been unable to accept Riga (who according to Agrin mysteriously unties his tethered leg and walks at night and returns to the camp safely despite his claims of being blind) as anything besides a taint, a continuous reminder of a brutal past.
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