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View Full Version : Turtles Can Fly (aka Lakposhtha hâm parvaz mikonand) (2004) (Iran)



hengcs
03-16-2005, 10:45 PM
Well, Oscar has given a review here:
http://www.filmwurld.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=1214&perpage=15&highlight=turtles%20can%20fly&pagenumber=2

If you have NOT watched it, go catch it!!!
;)

I think it deserves a new thread. So, here it is ...

* MAJOR SPOILER *

Quote Oscar, "There are two major aspects of the highly accomplished Turtles Can Fly that can be considered flaws or weaknesses:
1) ...
2)There's a flashback scene showing troops attacking Agrine's village. We see tanks, people running under the rain, Agrine falling on a puddle and being grabbed and pulled by a soldier. She has stated earlier that the toddler (Rega) is "their child". I'm convinced we are to assume that Agrine (played by an actress who looks about 12) was raped about three years ago by Hussein's troops and got pregnant with Rega. But the casting and mise-en-scene make it unclear, vague, even unlikely. Several members of the audience I spoke with appeared confused. One review on-line simply states "Agrine saw her village attacked by soldiers and her parents killed", another states she and her brother are "responsible for a blind toddler", and a respectable Brit website refers to the toddler as "their infant brother". Given the primacy of Agrine's trauma and her relationship to the toddler in the narrative, I consider this a major flaw in an otherwise remarkable film.

Hmmm ... I thought it was clear that the blind toddler was hers after being raped. Why did I say so ...

(i) the scene depicted her being raped, and her brother screamin

(ii) the brother convincing her (in the tent) to learn to like the toddler ...
(there would NOT be so much animosity if the toddler was theirs or their brother; also, there was really NO reason to believe it is hers and her brother's.)

(iii) she asking her brother how she could explain to the toddler when he grew old

END OF SPOILER

oscar jubis
03-17-2005, 01:07 AM
Originally posted by hengcs
the scene depicted her being raped, and her brother screamin

For a couple of seconds we can see the girl in the middle of the street fully clothed under a rainstorm being pulled by a soldier. Not enough info to convey she's being raped. It's a flashback to about three years earlier. The actress playing Agrine would have been pre-pubescent. I also assumed the director wanted to convey the baby was Agrine's, but the connection is not clearly made as evidenced by some reviews I quoted and by the reactions of several people I spoke with after the screening.