Turtles Can Fly takes place in a Kurdish refugee camp on the Turkey-Iraq border in the chaotic days of March 2003 just before the beginning of actual combat in Iraq. Because of Hussein’s ruthless oppression, the Kurds eagerly anticipate his defeat. Nevertheless, the more immediate concern of the troupes of children who are the film’s protagonists is the local power struggle between two boys: the young, tech-savvy Satellite, and the mystic Henkov, who lost his arms to a land mine. The presence of Henkov’s sister and her attraction to Satellite provide hope that the two boys can settle their differences more maturely than Bush and Hussein. She, however, harbors a dark secret of her own. As in Marooned in Iraq, Ghobadi draws ironic parallels between the children’s quarrelling and game playing and the combat all around them. – DP