TURTLES CAN FLY
Best Film Berlinale Kinder Film Fest 2005, Best Film San Sebastian 2004, Best Film Rotterdam Film Festival 2004
Days before the American invasion of Iraq, tense Kurdish refugees wait in camps on the sun-baked Turkish-Iraqi border, helplessly disconnected from any news. Desperate to stay apprised, they string up makeshift antennae, receiving sporadic signals, often in a tongue they don’t understand. The children in these camps, often orphaned and maimed by landmines, survive, ironically, by collecting unexploded ammunition to sell back to U.S. troops. Unlike them, 13-year-old Kak “Satellite” moves from camp to camp, maintaining the dodgy communications, his skills elevating him to community leader. But Kak’s life is complicated when he becomes involved with a maimed boy, his shell-shocked sister (who he falls for), and the baby they care for.
BAHMAN GHOBADI
He was born in 1968 in Baneh, Kurdistan, Iran. He got his B.A. in Movie Directing from the Iranian Broadcasting College. Ghobadi started his artistic career in field of Industrial photography from 1998. This experience helped him to expand his individualistic vision of the world around him. He started filmmaking with 8mm films. He made a few short documentaries as a start. His short films, as of the mid 1990’s, received many foreign & domestic awards. Life in Fog opened a new path in his career. This is the first Kurdish feature in the history of the Iranian cinema and Ghobadi is the first Kurdish director in the history of the cinema in Iran.