Award-Winning Iraq War Drama Gets U.S. Distribution

Shot with nonprofessionals in the manner of post-World War II Italian neorealist classics like Vittorio De Sica’s Bicycle Thieves and Umberto D., Kurdish-Iranian filmmaker Bahman Ghobadi’s Iraq invasion drama Turtles Can Fly is getting U.S. distribution.

IFC Films acquires U.S. rights to Iraq War-themed drama Turtles Can Fly

IFC Films has acquired U.S. rights in all media to Bahman Ghobadi’s French-Iranian-Iraqi co-production Turtles Can Fly, winner of the Golden Shell at this year’s San Sebastian Film Festival and reportedly one of the hottest-selling titles at this year’s American Film Market.

Additionally, Turtles Can Fly has been submitted as the Iranian entry for the 2005 Best Foreign Language Film Academy Award.

Set in a refugee camp near the border between Turkey and Iraq’s Kurdistan at the time of the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq in spring 2003, Turtles Can Fly revolves around a group of children – including an expert at installing satellite dishes – as camp denizens wait to hear the latest news about the war and Saddam Hussein’s inevitable fall.

Like several Italian neorealist classics directed by Vittorio De Sica (e.g., Shoeshine, Bicycle Thieves) and Roberto Rossellini (Paisan, Germany Year Zero), Turtles Can Fly features a cast of non-professionals, including four war-scarred children.

In other film acquisition news, New Line Cinema has bought the movie rights to Nobel Prize-winning author Gabriel García Marquez’s Love in the Time of Cholera. Oscar-winning screenwriter Ronald Harwood (The Pianist, 2002) has been tapped to adapt the classic novel for the screen.

Oscar winner Patty Duke undergoes heart bypass surgery + Antarctica’s first movie theater

In other fall 2004 news:

• Academy Award winner Patty Duke underwent heart bypass surgery on Nov. 3. The 57-year-old took home the 1962 Best Supporting Actress Oscar for her portrayal of Helen Keller, opposite Best Actress winner Anne Bancroft as Anne Sullivan, in Arthur Penn’s The Miracle Worker. Both Duke and Bancroft had previously co-starred in the stage version of the story, also directed by Penn.
• Hollywood-based French composer Michel Colombier (born on May 23, 1939, in Lyon), who scored more than 100 motion pictures and television productions, died at age 65 on Nov. 14 in Santa Monica, Los Angeles County. Among the movies featuring Colombier’s music are Jean-Pierre Melville’s Un Flic (a.k.a. A Cop / Dirty Money), Jacques Demy’s Une Chambre en Ville, Albert Magnoli’s Purple Rain, and Taylor Hackford’s Against All Odds and White Nights.
• Pete Travis’ Omagh was named Best Picture at this year’s Irish Film Awards, held in Dublin. This retelling of the IRA’s bloodiest bombing attack stars Best Actor winner Gerard McSorley. Eva Birthistle was the Irish Film Awards’ Best Actress for Ken Loach’s romantic drama Ae Fond Kiss, while Lenny Abrahamson was the Best Director for the comedy-drama Adam & Paul.
• As per the Russian publication Pravda, Argentina will open the first movie theater ever in Antarctica. The Argentine Cinema Institute and the country’s Foreign Ministry have signed a cooperation agreement to build a 50-seat movie house on the 25 de Mayo Island. The complex will be located in the vicinity of scientific bases from Argentina, Chile, South Korea, Poland, Russia, China, Uruguay, and Brazil. Showings will be restricted to Argentinian films, which have enjoyed a resurgence in the last few years. The Spanish-language movies will have English subtitles.

“Award-Winning Iraq War Drama Gets U.S. Distribution” notes

IFC Films website.

See also: Was Alexander the Great gay?

Turtles Can Fly image: Mij Film Co. | Bac Films | IFC Films.

“Award-Winning Iraq War Drama Gets U.S. Distribution” last updated in May 2023.