Watch Turtles Can Fly For Free

It's no definitive masterpiece but it's damn close.

best movie i've ever seen.

This story has more twists and turns than a second-rate soap opera.

The plot isn't so bad, but the pace of storytelling is too slow which makes people bored. Certain moments are so obvious and unnecessary for the main plot. I would've fast-forwarded those moments if it was an online streaming. The ending looks like implying a sequel, not sure if this movie will get one

The energetic film, with a dark sense of humor, charges into one impending critical situation after another and never pauses to look back to evaluate what took place. Many possible subplots are brought up and just as quickly are forgotten (such as, an Iranian doctor in Iraq searching for an armless boy who makes predictions). It's a messy film but is strangely lyrical and moving, as it paints its ugly picture of a war-torn country that was promised by Bush that this war would make things better. The final shot of the once optimistic Satellite, now on crutches from a minefield explosion, turning his back on the American soldiers passing through his village, the same soldiers he a short time ago welcomed as the saviors of his people, tells us how that optimism has faded.

Turtles Can Fly, a film directed by Bahman Ghobadi, was a very eye-opening film in that the audience could really feel true feelings from the characters. Taking place in a Kurdish refugee camp in Iraq, these many children live their ordinary lives while also preparing for the invasion of their country from the United States. I found this film to be very informative, but also very entertaining, despite all the dark elements within it.

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")

Okay, I know what I said about not seeing any war films for the rest of the year... but this is set just BEFORE the Iraq conflict, and it's not even about fighting. So ner.Instead there's some kid nicknamed Satellite, who is in charge of a group of orphaned children who help residents clear mines from their fields... which they then sell on. Well, you've gotta make a living somehow. It's while doing this he meet a traumatised girl, who he develops a crush on. Only trouble is... she has one older brother whose arms have been blown off, and a baby sibling who happens to be blind. Who she has to look after. Alone. Well, you can't choose who you fall in love with...Starting a few weeks before the Yanks landed and ending with the toppling of Saddam's statue, it weaves an intricate tale of damaged lives in a hazardous environment. Even in this precarious place surrounded by poverty and devastation, groups of children bond together in the mutual interest of survival, and every day they dice with death. Satellite, riding around on his bike, loves his young charges and would do anything to protect them. If only all bosses were so considerate...Considering most of these actors are probably non-professional, and there's so many of them, it's amazing how natural they are in front of the camera. Kudos to the makers too, for hiring people with obvious physical impediments... no prosthetics on display here. The plot keeps you watching, though it lacks drama until the very end. I enjoyed it more as a historical piece than a film, but it definitely is worth watching at least once. And no, you never do see any turtles fly. How disappointing... 6/10