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Turtle Can Fly
Angus Xie, Honda Zhu, Julie Pan, Kent Lin, Vivien Yang, Zora Hsiang
OUTLINE• Introduction• Background
Information• Relation – Children• Symbols – Illusion• Film Technique• Extra Information• Q&A
BACKGROUND INFORMATIONZora
Background Information – Director
• Bahman Ghobadi
• Kurdish Iranian filmmaker
• Realtistic
• Ethnic Minority – the Kurds
Background Information – Film
Iraq, Kurdistan, 2003 Invasion of Iraq
Iraq, Kurdistan
Kurdistan
• “The land of Kurds”
• Plateau & Mountain
• After WWI – Turkey, Iraq, Iran, Syria
• After Persian Golf War –
The Kurds
• Iranian, Sunni Muslim
• Own Language and Culture
• Kurdistan, Nomadic
• After WWI – promised to create Kurdistan as a countryOil found in territory →
The Kurds
• Early 20th Century: Nationalism
• Oppressed, especially in Iraq and Turkey
• Genocide in Iraq, Saddam Hussein –* Iran-Iraq War: Halabja Poison Gas Attack* Persian Golf War – Kurdish Safe-Haven (Northern Iraq )
• * 1996 incursion into “Safe-haven”
RELATION – CHILDRENAngus & Honda
Society Formed By ChildrenRefugees Orphans
To SurviveTo Support
Family
Cooperate with Each Other
Naturally Forms Micro Society Generates Power Relationship
Care
Trust
Responsibility
Care
Trust
Sympathy
Empathy
Love
Responsibility
Children – Power
• Satellite takes charge
other children.
– Help them find
jobs, survive.
• Others look up to him.
– Knowledge.
– Satellite dish.
– Information.
How Children Survive
• Clear mine fields
• More crippled,
More expert
• Endless vicious circle
– Mine would,
eventually,
GO OFF.
How Children Survive
• Clear artillery shells
– 1 USD= 1169 IQD
• A dud might explode.
• Show the intensity of
warfare.
• Knowing the
extortion, to play or to
die.
Children’s attitude
• Having fun in the
most un-laughable
situation.
– Naiveness
– Optimism
• Comradeship
– Support each other.
SYMBOL – ILLUSIONJulie & Vivien
Symbols comparison• Satellite
– Appearance
-Superior ability and knowledge
-Pro-American, media hegemony (the dish)
- The bike
• Red fish– The cure of blind eyes
Different meanings in China and Iran* Iran: one of the seven symbols of Nowruz , the Iranian New Yea
* China: propitious/success
• Water (amniotic fluid/lake)
– The place where life starts and ends
• mine/tank/guns– The objects that ruin the Kurdish kids’ life– Exchanging mine for food– for dish– for guns– Satelitte living in a tank
• Agrin– The mother(the child/Kurdish)– Asking for leaving– Choosing suicide– Rejectin Satellite
• Ria- the weak connection between Iraq and Kurd
• Series of disappointments
ILLUSIONS in regard to America’s image
1) USA mine:
- Satellite get injured: collapse of optimism
“You kept saying USA until you fell on USA mine.”
- Broken bike
2) Red fish: fake appearance
Symbols as Illusion
Irony
• Satellite: optimism
1)1:00:13~1:00:50
American army:
‘It’s the end of injustice, misfortune and hardship. We are your best friends and brothers. Those against us are our enemies. We will make this country a paradise. We are here to take away your sorrows. We are the best in the world.’
Juxtaposition: people on the hill, Hengov and the child - America: fallacy and hype - Kurdish people: causalities
2) 1:29:45~1:31:00 Satellite walks away without saying any words when the American army arrive
3) Use of color Beginning: colorful the film is shown in a Gloomy weather
Ending: dreary
FILM TECHNIQUEKent
Film Technique
• the scene Agrin goes to the high cliff main motif • the person in the upside-down reflection in the lake (throwing a stone or a rock?)• Soviet Montage juxtaposition• suicide to atone her sins • Mannerism landscape in a high-angle shot • the jumping scene vs. the film title• mine vs. turtle
• the telephoto lens to get Agrin’s close-up • using the nonprofessional performers
to prove the reality of the local society
• realism vs. reality • hand-held shots documentary• bird’s-eye shots • high-contrast angle shots • child’s eye-level shots
• composition triangular designs
• the movement away from the camera
• the movements from right to left vs. the movements from left to right
• the movement out of the depth of the scene & a long take
EXTRA INFORMATIONZora
Life in Fog (1998)
A Time for Drunken Horses (2000)
Q&A
QUESTION:
Why is the film titled “Turtle Can Fly”?
Works Cited
• Turtle Can Fly. Bahman Ghobadi. IFC, 2004. • http://74.125.153.132/search?q=cache:5k3UkjVq8J8J:www.oca.com.tw/
sidepage/magazine/80/03.doc+%E7%BE%8E%E4%BC%8A%E6%88%B0%E7%88%AD%E5%89%8D%E5%A4%95%EF%BC%8C%E5%BA%AB%E5%BE%B7%E6%97%8F&cd=1&hl=zh-TW&ct=clnk&client=opera
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Halabja_poison_gas_attack• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_Kurdish_people• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kurdish_people#Origins_and_History• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kurdistan• http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2386/2072069728_0d37c0d28a.jpg• http://movie.kingnet.com.tw/search/index.html?act=actor&r=1124161967• http://ifvc.com/images/lifeinfog.jpg• http://www.pbs.org/newshour/forum/september96/kurds_9-6.html• http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/inatl/daily/feb99/kurdprofile.htm