Iraq War Film Scoops Spanish Festival Prize

[Thurston Howell IV]

MADRID (Reuters) - An Iranian-Iraqi film set in the run-up to the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq and starring an amateur cast of war-scarred children won the top "Golden Shell" award at Spain's prestigious San Sebastian film festival Saturday.

"Turtles can fly," directed by Iranian-born Bahman Ghobadi, opens with villagers in Iraqi Kurdistan who are desperate for news of the impending war tilting and twisting a television antenna to try and improve the signal.

It explores the story of four children, one armless, and another a blind toddler -- who has since had an operation and can now see -- as the invasion progresses.

"I filmed my third feature film after a journey to Iraq, with the people and scenes which I found there. My script consisted of three pages of key words: 'refugee camp', 'misery', 'war', 'abuse'," the web site of Spanish newspaper El Mundo quoted Ghobadi as saying of his film.


http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=entertainmentNews&storyID=6332550