Turtles Can Fly (Kurdish: Kûsî jî dikarin bifirin) is a 2004 Iranian-Kurdish war drama film written, directed, and co-produced by Bahman Ghobadi. The film stars Soran Ebrahim, Avaz Latif, Saddam Hossein Faysal, Hiresh Feysal Rahman, Abdolrahman Karim, Ajil Zibari. The plot revolves around three refugee children near the Iraqi-Turkish border, waiting for the Americans to invade Iraq and overthrow Saddam Hussein.
Turtles Can Fly was the first film to be made after the 2003 invasion of Iraq. It had its premiere at 2004 Toronto International Film Festival.
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Plot
The film is set in the Kurdish refugee camp on the Iraq–Turkey border on the eve of the US invasion of Iraq. 13 year-old Soran, known by the alias “Kak Satellite”, is known for his installation of dishes and antenna for the villages who are looking for news about Saddam Hussein. He is also known for his limited knowledge of the English language, which he learns because he interacts with the Americans when they invade. He is the dynamic but manipulative leader of a group of children organizing the dangerous but necessary tasks of sweeping and clearing of the minefields. Many of the children are injured in an attempt to retrieve the mines, but still maintain a boisterous prattle whenever possible, devoted to their work in spite of the vagaries of their life.