|
TURTLES CAN FLY Send This Review to a Friend
Iraq has been a mess since the American invasion, but it was also a mess before, as Bahman Ghobadi shows us in his film about events just before the United States launched the recent war. Ghobadi took his camera to Iraqi Kurdistan, and created an upsetting tale that begins just before the Americans come.
The film starts with a girl leaping off a cliff, then backtracks to the story. The emphasis is on the poor living conditions and the every-day dangers as a result of the mines that still exist from previous battles. The story involves a feisty youngster nicknamed Satellite (Soran Ebrahim), who wheels and deals to get a satellite dish for the village. Inhabitants need one to watch TV for the news they seek, but they are barred from watching forbidden programs.
Satellite also directs efforts by local children who earn money for removing the mines and selling them, always at great risk. Some have already been maimed. In the screenplay, written by Ghobadi, the action builds to a harrowing climax in which Satellite tries to rescue a little boy who has been left in a mine field. The situation occurs just at about the time the U.S. force is arriving.
The film is not about the war, but about the people of this area, who will be affected by the fighting, but who, from what we witness, have already been coping with terrible and dangerous conditions as they struggle in their daily existence. This is a moving, unsettling drama that helps fill in the picture of life in a part of the world in our daily headlines. An IFC Films release.
|