"Children forgotten by the world"

Title: Lakposhtha parvaz mikonand (Turtles can Fly)
Year: 2004
Genre: Drama, War
Director and Writer: Bahman Ghobadi
Runtime: 98min
Cast: Soran Ebrahim, Avaz Latif, Saddam Hossein Feysal
Produc.: Mij Film Co., Bac Films

They are really too many, the times when us moviegoers forget that there is also a cinema across the pond, and Hollywood, although a nice alternative, it doesn´t stop being just one among many.

Several years ago I had already heard about this movie, but it was not until last week that  I decided to see it, and really had no idea what I was missing. Perhaps the strangest thing I saw was that it had been dubbed into spanish, but not the typical spanish or "latin spanish" we Uruguayans receive her, but the other, erroneously called "galician".

Turtles Can Fly is an Iranian film that takes place in a Kurdish refugee camp, and whose main character is Satellite (Soran Ebrahim), a child who at 13 years of age is more independent and self-taught than he should. Satellite is known to be responsible for installing satellite dishes for the adults of the village to find out what happens between Iranians and Americans in the war. At the same time, Satellite lives with a lot of orphans, for whom he works also as a leader. All these children, many of whom have been victims of the conflict (there is one who has no arms and one who is blind), have no option but to find landmines for resale.
Here, what we must definitely thank the director Ghobadi is for having taken the initiative to, not only teach us another perspective entirely different from the one seen in the American cinema, but also concerned, neither more nor less, to the point of view of the children. Because, although at first sight it often appears that armed confrontations are just a matter of guns and bombs, we must remember that soldiers are not the only ones who live their development.

There were two scenes that for my liking were, not only extremely graphic but also very representative of what war truly is. The first was one in which Satellite and his friend Pashow (Saddam Hossein Feysal) went to look for Riga (the blind child), who waited lost and scared and with one wounded hand, next to an extensive barbed wire. On the other side of the fence and watching from a tower in the distance was a soldier, and Pashow chooses to reassure the crying small child, pretending that he shoots the guard. Thus Pashow, raising his right leg forward with both hands and into an impossible position, just like a firearm, makes noises with his mouth as if he were shooting.

Afterwards, in a scene much later, Agrid (Avaz Latif), having decided that they had to keep moving and that small Riga was just a weight, she tied a stone to one of his brother´s legs and threw it into the stream. The rest, it can easily be imagined.

In short, scenes like this clearly illustrate the magnitude of what would have to confront anyone who saw this strong drama. Not suitable for tearfulness people.

My rating: 8/10

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