And what I want to bring to you today is still an Iranian work-“Turtles Can Fly”, which is also a must-see in Iranian movies!
I haven’t seen a few Iranian movies this year, so how am I embarrassed to say that I am a movie lover.
From “Children of Heaven” to “A Taste of Cherry”, from “A Separation” to “The Salesman” to “Capharnaüm”, Iranian directors have brought us wonderful works time and time again to surprise us.
“Turtles Can Fly” was filmed in 2004 during the Iraq War.
In this sensitive period, the director chose such a sensitive subject matter, which may have something to do with the director’s background.
Bahman Ghobadi is an Iranian director. He has witnessed the cruelty of the Iran-Iraq War and has his own unique brushstrokes about the war.
He also participated in the shooting of Abbas Kiarostami’s “The Wind Will Carry Us”, which also laid the foundation for the quality of his later works.
Since his first work “A Time for Drunken Horses”, he has been paying attention to the lives of people in Iran and Iran.
In “A Time for Drunken Horses”, he personally taught these little actors how to perform.
This makes the film express the theme in a not serious atmosphere: war is the biggest harm to children.
Bahman Ghobadi also won the 2000 Cannes Film Festival Golden Camera Award and the Fabici Award for Parallel Unit for the film.
Although “Turtles Can Fly” is an old film 17 years ago, only more than 8,000 people have watched it and evaluated it.
“Turtles Can Fly” has also reached 8.1 points on IMDb. It is a rare high-rated war-themed film with children as the protagonist.
A score of 8.1 is not a particularly high score, but this score is already better than 94% of war movies and 95% of dramas.
“Turtles Can Fly” is a legendary movie that has won the most awards worldwide.
The British “Guardian” commented directly: incredible performance!
Seeing the title “Turtles Can Fly”, if you think this is a magical work, then you are very wrong.
In fact, it is a “darkness” nightmare childhood work.
The first shot of “Turtles Can Fly” shows a girl standing on the edge of a cliff, her red dress swaying in the wind, jumping down…
I want to cry but I can’t shed tears, I want to cry but I can’t make a sound, just like the short life of one of the protagonists, Agrin, a girl who is only fourteen or five years old.
The story of “Turtles Can Fly” takes place on the border between Iraq and Turkey on the eve of the war between the United States and Iraq.
The protagonist is a group of children who lost their parents due to the war.
They live in refugee camps on the border and use tents as their home.
To make a living, they risked their lives to dig and sell mines in minefields.
Even if unfortunately stepped on a landmine and turned into a disabled person, they can only grit their teeth and persevere.
Because this is the only way to feed them.
The “little leader” of this group of children is a child named Satellite.
He is the “foreman” of these children, and even the soul of the entire village.
He took the children to dig all kinds of landmines left by the war every day.
Then they are sold to arms dealers and bargained in exchange for money for a living.
Although some children have injured their legs and become disabled because of mine digging, they have to continue to engage in this dangerous “career” in order to make a living.
One day, Satellite met three refugees from other places.
Brother Hengov, sister Agrin and three-year-old Riga.
The three claimed to be siblings, but in fact their relationship was confusing.
When my brother was digging a landmine, he accidentally blew up his arms.
But in order to survive, he still insisted on digging mines with his “mouth”.
The younger brother Riga, who is only 2 years old, can hardly see anything with his eyes.
You can’t imagine what kind of hardship they have gone through.
His brother Hengov always looked at the world with sad and melancholy eyes.
He has the ability to predict the future, but what he predicts is only disaster, and this is just adding a bit of pain.
His sister Agrin has the same melancholy and hollow eyes as his brother.
But Satellite fell in love with her the first time he saw her.
The young ignorant love should be full of memories, but the war brought them only unspeakable pain.
Little Riga is always with her sister Agrin.
Little Riga is very cute, and he is also a child with a mysterious life.
For some reason, Agrin always tried everything possible to kill little Riga.
She would abuse Riga while Hengov was asleep.
You may be confused why your sister treats your brother like this?
It wasn’t until Agrin recalled his tragic past that the cruel truth slowly surfaced…
After you watch the film, you will feel that all the misfortunes we have experienced are too small in front of this film.
Maybe this is also a movie that you will never forget after watching it.
“Turtles Can Fly” has both distinct characteristics of the times and a profound historical background.
The story is very heavy, but it is full of fascinating things.
The whole film is never dull, and it often makes you smile.
The children’s performances are also extremely in place, the kind of despair, the kind of sadness, the kind of tenaciousness, will hit your heart directly and make you convinced.
This calm film about war is free of gunpowder, gunfire, wailing, and bones.
However, “Turtles Can Fly” allows you and me to experience the feeling of endless pain from the bottom of my heart.
I don’t know how many people have been startled by the fierce camera expression and story clues during the viewing process, and then they gradually understand the meaning of the title.
If the tortoise can also fly, then for the tortoise carrying the helpless mission tortoise shell, does this “fly” soar into the sky or fall into the quagmire?
If the tortoise can really fly, then I think it obviously has a pair of bloody wings.
