Turtles Can Fly

2004 film, the first released from Iraq since the occupation, by Bahman Ghobadi, who gave us the below-standard '...Persian Cats'. This is much better
the dialgoue generally veers above the level of annoying, the plot does not exactly fly along, but has a smooth enough arc to go with its main point, which is obviously a kind of reportage
use of various framings; rather standard singles, but some nicer medium shots, and the much more interesting extra-long shots, which are the closest to giving us a sense of the (largely neglected) landscape, by creating some space
the colour scheme is throughout an interesting one, with good browny/grey washed out work on the rubbish heap, mirrored in the water
this film isn't really about the style though;
this is realism, but it's not quite your standard misery film.
Not just the mystical elements, by the strangely ordered way the action is moved around, almost a flippany seems to enter at times
the same sense of fatalism of 'Persian Cats'
the misery we're shown here may have been better dealt with in a documentary; especially considering the lack of context shown (few newsreel shots just beg the question)
alternatively, could have beena complete fantasia
what we ultimately have is a film that is not your standard realism, too jerky and staged for that, but at once is focussed on a very real happening
in no way a particularly good film, but interesting nonetheless
It would be patronising to congratulate it for simply being made; the greater complement is to analyse how it works