Details
Turtles can fly - Lakposhtha parvaz mikonand - 2004 directed by Bahman Ghobadi. Set in Ghobadi's native Kurdistan, close to the Turkey-Iran border. Soran is a 13-year-old boy who orders other children around as he installs an antenna for villagers keen to hear of Saddam's fall. Eventually, he falls for Agrin but is disturbed by her brother Henkov, who was left armless after he stepped on a landmine and who can now seemingly predict the future.
This film treats the pain of war in an unblinking way, recognizing that some of us simply are not equipped to carry that pain, for reasons that cannot be fathomed.
All of the child actors in this film were actual refugees. Rated PG-13 for violence, disturbing images and mature thematic material, all involving children. In Kurdish, with optional English and French subtitles. French packaging because we get it from Canada.