Audio Asylum Thread Printer

Get a view of an entire thread on one page

FAQ / News / Events

Films/DVD Asylum

"Turtles Can Fly:" I have only superlatives for this film, which I

209.26.126.28

[ Follow Ups ] [ Post Followup ] [ Thread: Display Email Next ] [ Films/DVD Asylum ]

resisted because the title made it sound like a touchy-feely-Robert Redford/Sundance film.
I couldn't have been more wrong.
This is one of the most beautiful and gut-wrenching films I have ever seen. It's been only a couple of hours since it ended and I'm still in... shock.
A very young girl, her brother, and a young baby have been forced from their Kurdish village immediately before the American invasion: their parents brutally were murdered.
They arrive in an Iraqi Muslim town where many inhabitants, refugees, live in tents and where the only link to the outside world is television. A young boy, having mastered the skills to hookup satellites, makes a living installing them: he is drawn to the three refugees because of the beauty of the young girl.
He also employs the young children as mine field clearers, selling the mines back to the army.
This harrowing business soon pits him against the young girl's brother who it is said can foresee the future.
Skillfully directed to bring out the most tension in the many tense scenes, the film manages to show the humanity and strength of the human spirit even in the most dangerous of places.
There is even real humor within the deep pathos.
The young actors, even the toddler, are exceptional.
You will never forget them.
Thanks, dave c, it is better than you said.

Follow Ups:

readers prepare yourselves - PhilJ 14:43:57 11/03/06 (4)
for this movie. It is very plain in it's depiction and believable in a manner that draws you into this terrible existence. Those children are truly brave and inspiring so it is tolerable to watch this life of theirs - and we can be thankful for what we have.
agreed - a very fine film.
- Seldom does art also have great political meaning, like "Germinal," - tinear 18:50:40 11/03/06 (0)
  Zola's great novel or "Z," the classic film of Costa-Gavras, or Kubrick's "Paths of Glory."
  Turtles certainly is of this caliber.
  Nothing can prepare one for this film's emotional impact.
  It makes most film seem unimportant, vacant, self-centered, vain, empty.
  This is art that scares you with its power, that hits like events in your life, that makes you reconsider your own path in life.
- everyoe interested in films enough to come here should see it - dave c 16:01:25 11/03/06 (2)
  It really is very good, in my opinion.
  The way they survive by their wits, waiting for the US army to arrive like John Wayne and the 7th cavalry only to be invisible to them is very provocative. And I don't mean that in any anti-American sense at all.
  - Yes, SPOILER WARNING) Read cautiously if you have not sen the film. - dave c 19:30:08 11/03/06 (0)
    Thanks Tin
  - Dave, you should have put in a SPOILER warning. Not just a "very good" film: it is - tinear 18:45:48 11/03/06 (0)
    superb and will, over time, be seen as great.

This post is made possible by the generous support of people like you and our sponsors:

You can not post to an archived thread.