Turtles Can Fly by Bahman Ghobadi explores themes of war, refuge, and the lost innocence of childhood. It is set in a Kurdish camp somewhere on the Iraq-Turkey borders just before the US invasion. The movie begins by showing Soran, its protagonist, predominantly known as Kak Satellite (Soran Ebrahim), as he is ordering his minions (children of the village) around to try to get some signal on the Antennas over the rooftops of the village. He is known for his expertise on all things technology. Kak Satellite is also a child himself but easily takes a leadership role over the children by organising them into groups that investigate the ground for mines. He then sells the mines in Erbil to buy a Satellite dish that will keep the village updated on the national news.
The other main two characters of the movie are Agrin (Avaz Latif) and her disabled brother Hengov (Hiresh Feysal Rahman), two orphaned siblings with different dispositions from Halabja. The siblings have recently left their home after Ba’ath soldiers attacked their village and killed their parents. They are also accompanied by a little blind toddler that they refer to by the name of Riga. Agrin despises the small child and cannot stand his existence, she constantly refers to him as the “bastard” and urges her brother for them to leave and abandon him. Kak Satellite develops a crush on Agrin the moment he sees her and always offers to help her and tries to win her heart. He also develops a rivalry with Hengov since he was the only child that defied his leadership - that rivalry however turns into unspoken empathy and understanding as the plot moves forward.
Agrin is plausibly the most intriguing character given that her despise towards Riga isn’t given clear reasons leaving the viewer speculating on why a child has that much hate in her heart towards a much younger and more helpless one. That mystery unravels when a flashback later in the movie reveals that she was gang raped by Ba’ath soldiers when their original village was attacked. Riga, the result of that horrendous experience, serves as a constant reminder of Agrin’s trauma and dark past. Hengov however, remains tender and kind to the child and has already accepted him as family. Hengov is also a clairvoyant - can predict the future - and once the rumour about his special ability spreads throughout the village and reaches Kak Satellite, the latter continually goes to him pleading for predictions on the current US/Iraq conflict.
Agrin wears a gloomy expression on her face throughout the movie and she is almost a personification of the state of weariness and despair Kurds in Iraqi Kurdistan were feeling as they awaited the fall of Saddam Hussien. Most of the movie’s events took place on the eve of the US invasion, where we’re shown Kak Satellite’s high regard for all things American as he excitedly waited for the US to intervene. However, the ending of the movie, where a mine-injured Kak Satellite doesn’t even glance at the American humvees passing by him as the rain drenches his form, shows that he’s finally accepted his harsh reality and is no longer enchanted by the American intervention.
What makes Ghobadi’s cinematic take on war and displacement interesting and worth giving a shot in “Turtles Can Fly,” is the fact that children are the ones controlling the narrative and even the destiny of the village. Kak Satellite for example has the modern technological knowledge that makes the adults rely on him to get them a signal on their antennas, to sell the mines the children found in exchange for a satellite dish, and to even translate the news to them from English. All on top of the fact that all of the children of the village are willing to do whatever he orders them - though it’s worth noting that Kak Satellite is portrayed as the kind of leader that is good: he almost sacrificed his life trying to save Riga after Agrin abandoned him in a minefield and is overall protective of “his'' children. He is the kind of leader that the children love, admire, and respect rather than fear. His case serves as an interesting satirical contrast on Iraqi politics and leadership.
The movie received good critical acclaim, receiving awards at Berlin and Chicago International Film Festivals and its cultural influence reached beyond the borders of its place. Most notably, the protagonist of the Japanese anime series Mobile Suit Gundam 00, Setsuna F. Seiei (whose real name is Soran Ibrahim after the child actor who played Kak Satellite) is of Kurdish origins with an anti-war mindset.