
On the Kurdish refugee camp on the Iraqi-Turkish border, the boy Satellite 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 New... (Full plot summary below)
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On the Kurdish refugee camp on the Iraqi-Turkish border, the boy Satellite 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 and her armless brother Hengov 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.
Leave your thoughts about Turtles Can Fly.
| The New RepublicStanley KauffmannTurtles Can Fly, is masterly: it courses before us with grace, a control that paradoxically bespeaks love and anger. |
| New York PostV.A. MusettoThis isn't a war movie. Rather, it's a powerful, heart-tugging portrait of the innocent victims of conflict. |
| Christian Science MonitorDavid SterrittSuperb acting and authentic details energize this rare Iran/Iraq coproduction. |
| Uruguay TotalEnrique BuchichioUna película conmovedora, sugestiva y poética, donde gran parte de la convicción proviene de sus increíbles actores no profesionales. |
| Spirituality and PracticeFrederic and Mary Ann BrussatA powerful, prophetic, and utterly mesmerizing Iranian film set in 2003 Iraq about the fallout from both dictators and liberators on the torn lives of refugee children. |
| Village VoiceJessica WinterAmid the muddy scrubbery of the camp and its hinterland surroundings, Ghobadi catches some striking compositions. |
| New York ObserverAndrew SarrisThere are limits to this approach, both as a strategy of emotional exploitation and an instrument of political analysis. It is simply too easy to weep over maimed children. |
| Chicago Sun-TimesRoger EbertIt is about the actual lives of refugees, who lack the luxury of opinions because they are preoccupied with staying alive in a world that has no place for them. |
| Boston GlobeTy BurrGhobadi shows us a world where a village pond can hold both rare goldfish and unforgivable evil, and where every step is onto booby-trapped terrain. |
| Jam! MoviesJim SlotekTake Peter Pan and his "lost boys" and subject them to the worst realities facing children in wartorn Iraq, and you'll have something of the incongruous mix of whimsy and horror that is Turtles Can Fly. |