TURTLES CAN FLY

Certainly an extraordinary film from Iraq and Iran, but not a good movie to take a mother to on Mother's Day, which I did. With a cast of seemingly hundreds of children, most non-professional actors, many of whom have lost limbs because of stepping on mines (the American mines are the best) or through the conflict, it is hard to take. There's no make up job here when one of the main child characters with no forearms takes up a child who may or may not be his little brother into the stumps of his arms in an effort to comfort and protect him. With further explosions, suicides and mercy killings, it is a film worthy of the Bunuel of LOS OLVIDADOS, or of Hector Babenco's PIXOTE. But not a Mother's Day film.

Directed by Kurdish filmmaker Bahman Ghobadi of A TIME FOR URNKEN HORSES, another feel good film, TURTLES CAN FLY is not without its moments of surreal humor. And the kids are resilient. Led by Satellite, an entrepreneurial huckster who trades in satellite dishes to get true information on the eve of the American invasion of Iraq. He also trades in mines. As might be expected there are no women and few girls, only a stunning performance by the beautiful Avaz Latif, the sister of the boy with no arms. She is truly heartbreaking. And parts of the film are almost pro-American. Nevertheless, I feel the last image of the film, with the battered Satellite on the road with the American troops arriving says it all.

On one level, the film does not entirely succeed. The narrative is often less than coherent, and it's not clear whether the prophetic vision of the boy with no arms comes from his nature or because he has no arms. Nevertheless, TURTLES CAN FLY is a powerful movie going experience.. I'm glad Mother's Day is over.