Steinesongo Too many fans seem to be blown away

GurlyIamBeach Instant Favorite.

Dirtylogy It's funny, it's tense, it features two great performances from two actors and the director expertly creates a web of odd tension where you actually don't know what is happening for the majority of the run time.

Cassandra Story: It's very simple but honestly that is fine.

lileonhirth Turtles Can Fly is a film about a ton of refugee kids living in Iraq. These kids work extremely hard every single day. The main character Astrin was abused, raped, and had at kid at the age of 13. Astrin spends her time with her armless brother Hengov and her baby Riga. Throughout this film it is very obvious to see that Astrin struggles with depression, anxiety, and suicidal thoughts. One of the older kids Satellite organizes children into work gangs, and sells mines to dealers. Satellite falls in love with Agrin and tries his hardest to make her happy. Agrin is traumatized throughout the whole film because her parents were killed and she was rapped. Agrin does not live her life because all she can think about is her past. I did not enjoy watching this film because it carried a lot of depressing content. This film was very interesting because it showed a new perspective about the kids in Iraq. I was very interested in how hard the children work to try and make money. Although I did not enjoy watching this film, I would recommend this film to someone who is interested about the history in Iraq. A normal day for children in Iraq is extremely different to a normal day in the United States.

alexdeleonfilm 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.

Claudio Carvalho 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")

saters5 Great literature, great film challenges us, provokes us, pulls on our heart, stays in our minds, and haunts us to at least be aware of our world, and those "other" people living in it. The way "Schindler's List" did all of that to me, for me ~ last night came "Turtles Can Fly", a 2004 film about Refugee Camp Kurds living at the Iraq-Turkey Border during the American invasion of Iraq. As the much more eloquent writers here on IMDb have shared, this is not a political movie making statements about America, Turkey, or Iraq...it is a view through children's eyes, living mid-hope, mid-despair. I wanted to look away....and could not. Like the Pulitzer Award-Winning Novel, "Andersonville" by MacKinlay Kantor, which I had to put down at various points, I was held prisoner for 98 minutes by these child actors. When I read afterward that these were real refugee camp children, led in this film by the talented director, I was even more amazed. 16 International Film Critic Awards...one of the saddest movies I have ever seen. Cannot recommend it to anyone who is not willing to be opened up....like a coconut. I say that with a smirk, but also a very deep ache...