To be honest, this is the year I finally managed to catch a bunch of good international movies. Some of the really small gems which get lost. That is where Netflix comes in, gathering all of those great films in a nice HD streamable format.
‘Turtles can fly’ is the story of a Kurdish village ravaged by Saddam and his army. Its basically a refugee village with only kids and a few old men left. The kids are led by Satellite, a dynamic 12-13 year old named after his ability to install and configure satellite dishes. Satellite also leads the kids on mine clearing missions. He then sells the mines, thus providing the only source of employment. Its a relentless tragedy as one observes kids without an arm or a leg most likely from accidents during the picking of mines. However life must go on and Satellite and his group treat the missing limbs in a matter of fact fashion.
Satellite has his eyes for a pale beautiful girl who lives with her armless brother and an small kid presumably their brother. The armless boy is supposed to have some powers of clairvoyance. And the predictions he makes aren’t always pleasant. There is a lot of pain in the girl’s eyes and as the horror of her past is relived, one realizes the pain and agony that people and specially kids have to go through each day in that region. As everyone around prays for American intervention, war ironically seems to be the panacea to all their problems.
The movie starts off at a meandering pace letting us into the lives of the kids and their suffering. But pretty soon, the story grips you and one is inevitably tied in to each of the characters and they all mean something to you. The music is haunting and the children's performances are scarily natural. It helps that the kids aren't actors but mainly real children from the region. The film takes an tragicomic sort of approach, dealing with the destruction in a nonchalant sort of way. Its been directed by Bahman Ghobadi, an Kurdish Iranian filmmaker and the music is by Hossein Alizadeh. Probably one of the finest movies of the decade; one that is chilling in the effect it leaves on you.