Turtles Can Fly

It may be the first film to emerge from a post Saddam Hussein Iraq, but Bahman Ghobadi's Turtles Can Fly a is notable achievement and not just for the resilience displayed by its director and cast in ensuring that the film was actually made. As in his previous feature, A Time for Drunken Horses, Bahman Ghobadi is interested in the plight facing the defenceless, usually kids, who have to face the dangers that adults - never mind pre-pubescents - shouldn't have to deal with it. Set just before the American invasion in 2003, Turtles Can Fly follows a group of kids who live in a hideous refugee camp on the border of Iraq and Turkey. The only way that these youngsters can earn anything is by collecting landmines, which, not surprisingly, leads to many of them being mutilated or killed. The youthful leader of these kids is Satellite (Soran Ebrahim), whose nickname derives from the fact that he's a self-taught electrical whiz and is desperate to get a TV antenna hooked up and working so he can learn of the American progress in their invasion/liberation. The reason? He naively believes that everything will be okay once the old regime is toppled.

Heartfelt and exceedingly timely, Turtles Can Fly paints a frighteningly realistic portrait of the hardships of war mostly endured by those who have endured too much pain and suffering even before conflict has started. Resisting the temptation to tone down the material for an international audience, Ghobadi uses the children's predicament to emphasis both the hopelessness and insanity of their situation. Yet as despondent as the tone of the film is, it's also a telling one, with some exquisitely judged performances.