Turles Can Fly _ Cait Collins

How do diasporic situations affect the characters' lives in Ghobadi's film Turtles Can Fly? Both Kandahar and Turtles Can Fly take place directly preceding U.S. invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq respectively. In what ways might your North American identity impact your viewing of these films? What formal and/or stylistic elements strike you as relevant in Turtles Can Fly? What message do you think Ghobadi might be attempting to impart by telling this particular story? Of course, feel free to write your honest thoughts about the film(s) here, as well. I just wanted to 'frame' the conversation somewhat... (And begin reading The Reluctant Fundamentalist if you can. It will hook you!)

The diasporic situations affect the lives of the characters in Turtles Can Fly in many different ways.  For Satellite it has the least severe effects, his love interest comes about because the conflict brought about her moving to a makeshift home near by.  Satellite also has to deal with competition from the armless boy (Henkov).  Both Henkov's followers and Satellite's are trying to clear the local fields of landmines.  Henkov and Satellite are in constant competition over clearing the fields. Henkov is affected by diasporia because it has brought about the displacement of his family.  The conflict has caused the deaths of his mother and father and has left him to care for his sister and her bastard child. He must attempt to care for them all while armless.  Henkov's sister Agrin was affected by diasporia more than any other character. Agrin is living in a small tent with her armless brother and her unwanted child that came about after being brutally raped.  Agrin is forced to live a life no person, and especially no child should be forced to handle. She has lost her parents, the effectiveness of her brother, and the ownership of her own body. The effects of conflict and the diasporic situation she faces leave her without a true home, which brings about a crippling level of depression that in the end becomes too much for her to handle. 

As a Northern American I sometimes feel a lack of connection to other countries and groups of people, and the plights they may face.  Turtles Can Fly was able to overwhelm me with emotion, to see these children attempting to keep a sense of normality through all the chaos was both appalling and encouraging. I understand why the pain Agrin was handling was too much for her to handle, and if I was in the same situation I can't say I would have handled it much differently.  The hope that was within Henkov and Satellite however was very encouraging. By the end of the film I wanted to see them keep going, and hopefully finding a better life. 

I think  Ghobadi was attempting to show all the appalling conditions that face the youth of Kurdistan, to make these children more relatable.  We as a society are not going to try to improve a situation we know nothing about, and through the media of film  Ghobadi may be trying to educate people about the plights of many people within varying societies.