Turtles Can Fly

Turtles Can Fly is a 2004 Kurdish war drama film written, produced, and directed by Bahman Ghobadi. The film stars Soran Ebrahim, Avaz Latif, Saddam Hossein Faysal, Hiresh Feysal Rahman, Abdolrahman Karim, Ajil Zibari. The plot is about three refugee children near the Iraqi-Turkish border, awaiting for the Americans to invade Iraq and overthrow Saddam Hussein. Turtles Can Fly was the first film to be made after the 2003 invasion of Iraq. It had its premiere at 2004 Toronto International Film Festival. Plot The film is set in the Kurdish refugee camp on the Iraq–Turkey border on the eve of the US invasion of Iraq. Thirteen-year-old Soran, known by the alias Kak Satellite, is known for his installation of dishes and antenna for the villages who are looking for news about Saddam Hussein, he is also known for his limited knowledge of the English language, which he learns because he interacts with the Americans when they invade. 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 Kak Satellite arranges trade-ins for undetonated mines. He falls for a girl named Agrin, an orphan from Halabja who has recently came to the refugee camps, 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. She is traveling with her disabled but very caring brother Hengov, who has the gift of clairvoyance that made him have a bad reputation for it. The siblings stay with a blind toddler named Riga, who they introduce as their "little brother". It is later revealed that Agrin gave birth to Riga after she was gang raped by Ba'ath soldiers, while Hengov's arms had been shot as the soldiers attempted to drown both of them. Agrin is unable to accept Riga as anything besides a taint, a continuous reminder of her brutal past.