Turtles Can Fly- Maggie Varga

Many of the scenes in this film were hard to watch, due to the suffering these children were going through. What hit me hardest was the fact Agrin, a young, sad-looking girl, was caring for a child she gave birth to due to a gang-rape by soldiers. She obviously was damaged by this and had much hate toward the child. Agrin's brother was also srtuggling to survive because he was missing both of his arms. These children seem to be traveling, but with no where to go. They are forced to live in a refugee camp, with little to no accommodations.
It appears that the children in this area are most affected by diaspora. Many have no where to go, and no adult figure to watch after them. Besides some soldiers in the film, adults are rarely seen. The children are forced to search for work and many collect landmines. This is quite dangerous and you can see many children with missing limbs or disfigured bodies because of the landmines. This ultimately leads to the death of the child Agrin gave birth to, whom she has tried to kill on multiple occasions. In the same explosion, a young teen nicknamed Satellite, is severely injured. Not only do these children have no place to live, they have to live in fear of blowing up and have to watch their every move.
In general, the use of children as the main characters sent a bigger message to me and affected me more than it would if adults played their roles. My childhood was sheltered and safe, for the most part, compared to these children. They basically were adults living in children's bodies. I cannot imagine a place where I had no where to go as a child and had to fend for myself. You can see the pain and anguish on Agrin's face throughout the film. She is almost numb to emotion, besides when she displays her rage toward the baby. Seeing someone so young have so much pain is quite shocking to me. It is truly a culture shock and Ghobadi really got his message across by exposing the lives of the children.