Film

Hell Is for Children

'Turtles Can Fly' Feels Like the End of the World

by Andrew Wright

War, as the great director/legendary kook Sam Fuller once famously opined, can probably only be truly captured cinematically by having the projectionist randomly fire off a few clips towards the audience. Still, in the age of 24/7 reporting, the average viewer can be forgiven for feeling like they've seen all there is to see. Even the most jaded CNN junkies, however, may find their limits tested by Turtles Can Fly, a devastating new movie focusing on the children caught in the middle of Operation Enduring Freedom.

Set in a refugee camp at the border of Iraqi Kurdistan, director Bahman Ghobadi's (A Time for Drunken Horses) plot centers on an American-worshipping teen tech-geek (nicknamed "Satellite" for his role in bringing the wonders of Fox News to the village elders) and his attraction toward a mysterious female newcomer to the area. Any semblance of narrative quickly dissipates, however, in the wake of the film's horribly matter-of-fact depiction of a world where children nonchalantly chug kerosene for a toothache, and an armless kid disables explosives with his teeth in order to turn a profit.

A few hitches occasionally threaten to break the film's encompassing spell: Some of the nonprofessional child actors (many of whom are actual residents of the camp) can be awfully shrill, and a serious case could be made that the director's use of children in manufactured peril eventually crosses the uneasy line between realism and overt manipulation. (By the time a blind toddler started wandering around in an active mine field, I more or less mentally threw up my hands in surrender.) Still, it's impossible to deny the sheer shivery force of the film, and the overriding feeling that Ghobadi has somehow ripped the veil off of reality. When the bulk of the village gathers on a hill waiting for the war to start, it truly feels like the end of the world. Fuller would probably approve.