TURTLES CAN FLY

Drama

BACKGROUND
The Kurds are a group of people who have lived in the same mountainous region for 2,000 years. Following World War One they were promised their own state, carved out of the former Ottoman Empire. The British, French and Turks thwarted this after oil was found in the territory. Today over 3 million live in the northern part of Iraq, another 20 million in the surrounding areas. In 1988 Saddam Hussein's army brutally crushed an independence movement, killing over 300,000. The ruthless invaders raped thousands of women and the children of these encounters only added to the vast number of children orphaned by the death of their parents. Most of these children live in makeshift refugee villages and earn a meagre living by scavenging unexploded land mines that are sold to the United Nations Mine Action Authority or sometimes to local arms dealers.

PRINCIPAL CAST MEMBERS
Satellite, a 13-year-old leader of a hundred or so younger kids
Agrin, a 15-year-old refugee orphan girl living in a nearby camp
Pasheo (or Hangao?) her armless brother
A blind toddler being cared for by them

REVIEW
Set in Turkish Iraq just weeks before the 1993 first American invasion of Iraq, the movie depicts the hardship that these people had to endure following the invasion of Saddam Hussein’s army. The cast of lost, physically and emotionally crippled youngsters, are actual refugees. Because they are non-professional actors, the movie comes across like a documentary (except for Pasheo’s gift of clairvoyance).

CLASSIFICATION
for violence, disturbing images and mature thematic material, all involving children.