Turtles Can Fly, a movie that I was very crossed with. The movie is set in a small Kurdish village in Iraq. A young man is able to capitalize on the war and sell new/used American land mines. While doing this he encounters some of the young children who fell victim to Saddam Hussein's gas experiments. Satellite- the young capitalist- finds a boy with no arms and his abused sister, and her son walking into the village. The troubled little girl wants to rid her on her baby, but weirdly the brother wants to keep him. The movie is very dark in the fact that the young girl will eventually kill herself, and the armless boy becomes very sad about it. The most satisfying part of the film was the insertion of the American forces. It made me feel sane and gave me hope that just maybe the people in the small village would be saved. I personally would not recommend the movie, unless you like a very actuate and sad film, of the first Iraq war.

Turtles Can Fly is a very good movie when it comes to explaining the conflict between Iraq and the United States. This movie focuses mainly on the viewpoint of children during the war. The movie takes place in Iraq, following the Kurds and the different villages they have due to being split up. As everyone knows or does not, the Kurds are the largest ethnic group without a nation. The main character Satellite is really the only boy in the whole village who is older than all the other boys. Every other boy except for the boy with no arms is much younger than Satellite, which is very odd. Satellite is named satellite for his ability to set up satellites for the neighboring villages and I guess he does a pretty good job at it. He is in love with a girl named Agrid who was raped and then had a child. She dislikes her child as she does not believe it is hers, and eventually ends up killing the baby after mainly countless trials. An interesting view point I saw throughout the film was the changing idea of the Americans to Satellite. At the beginning of the movie he was amazed by everything about the Americans, until they actually come and he experiences the pain from war. He hurts his foot on a land mine and after that just does not know what to do anymore as he feels there is no hope for him. I recommend anyone who is interested in this conflict to see the film.

TURTLES CAN FLY, Viewed at the the 2004 San Sebastian film festival, September 2006. At a Kurdish refugee camp on the Iraqi-Turkish border, a boy nicknamed "Satellite" is the leader of the kids. Their job is to clear and collect undetonated mines in the fields to sell them in the street market and he installs antennas for the TV sets in village."Turtles Can Fly" is an extremely powerful film by Kurdish-Iranian director Bahman Ghobadi. The title is a bit misleading because, though a turtle does appear for about two seconds near the end, the subject is the abject misery of pitiful war orphans, Kurdish Children, some of them badly mutilated, in a squalid tent camp on the Turkish border where they are fleeing from Sadam's persecution on the eve of the American Invasion. The running time is only 95 minutes but it felt more like 95 hours watching the unbearable suffering and incredible resilience of these beautiful kids, growing up much too fast as victims of war in a situation where death is the common denominator and survival all that really matters. The central figure, a teenage boy, is called "Kak Satellite" because he is a provider of satellite TV sets and acts as a part time interpreter of CNN for the adults, although his English is so limited that his interpretations are mostly imagination. "The Americans are coming any day" is a message of hope he repeats over and over again, but the whole area is sewn with minefields and sudden death lurks at every turn. One of the kids is armless but fights with his head to protect his little sister who is, incidentally, an incredibly beautiful child of eleven with the face of a mature movie star, and has already been raped by marauding Iraqi soldiers. The Americans finally arrive, but whether this will only bring more death, destruction and misery is a very moot question. The film is beautifully shot and these kids are definitely not professional thespians but are rather living out their reality before the cameras. Ghobadi, who is a master at handling kids, gave them a few basic ideas and told them to run with it. The story they "made up" is composed of such grim realities that it is almost too disconcerting to sit through, while at the same time brilliantly engaging. If this one doesn't take the big prize tomorrow, I for one, will be very much surprised.Ps: It won the Concha de Oro palmarès hands down by unanimous jury decision.

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")