A Time for Drunken Horses- children of Ghobadi's cinema

The Iranian cinema in recent times have come up with some poignant tales of love, sacrifice, filial bondage and all showing children as protagonists. One of the most important movie-maker in this respect is Majid Majidi. Majidi's Colors of Paradise, or Children of Heaven or in fact Baran or Songs of Sparrows all have children as the protagonists. This sort of creative biverts are often chosen by Iranian film-makers who cannot show openly man-woman relationships or other overtly political views through the films. Hence children are chosen to present things in the garb of innocence.
Bahman Ghobadi from Kurdishtan and being a Kurdish fim-maker is no different from Majidi or Panahi who hail from Iran. However, Bahman's movies it seems choose children not to hide the crudeness of reality but to create the pathos in a more severe manner. It seems it is his way of catharsis for purifying the souls through taking a through scenes of devastatingly ugly refugee camps, torments of war lived and experienced by beautifully innocent children. Ghobadi tries to put forth the saga of the sufferings of his Kurdish people and to show how they still live on, thanks to their sheer courage and optimism.
Turtles Can fly showed that through the industrious and optimistic Satellite leading a troupe of orphaned Kurdish boys, amidst the village lands dotted with landmines and the valleys howling with the pains and sufferings of innocent adolescent girls. In the time for Drunken Horses, things are more difficult. A group of orphaned children make a living by smuggling goods across the Iran Iraq border. Ayoub hardly 12 or 13 having lost his father in a mine explosion, is compelled to take responsibility of his brothers and sisters, one being crippled and sick. Madi the deformed brother is seriously ill and needs and operation almost unaffordable for this family. However Ayoub and the other children almost take it up as a project to save Madi. Ayoub coaxes a local tradesman to be allowed to accompany his troupe with his uncle's donkey amidst the snow capped rugged lands. Its winter and even the horses are fed alcohol to keep them moving in the snow. Also are the apprehended dangers of blizzards and ambushes. However Ayoub is unrelented. He remains undaunted by these hardships to provide for his family. It seems that saving crippled Madi is not a choice for these children. Intense sufferings due to poverty has not wiped out the filial affection out of these children. Options to earn a living are too little. In one of the journeys to the border, Ayoub learns from a boy of his age, that he has large areas of farmlands all with landmines-too many to get rid off. The geographies of a better land are closed to them. The children still pawn their lives for each other. Razin, the elder daughter of the family, agrees to a marriage, only at the condition, that the groom would pay for Madi's operation. Later Ayoub risks everything to get Madi across the border.
Unlike the White Ballon, or Colors of paradise or Children of Heaven (where indeed the children are in trouble)Ghobadi's children are in the grip of terrifying emotions: connected not with their dead parents, or the unutterable grimness of their lives - burdens they carry with heartbreaking stoicism, but but rather with the immediate problem of raising enough money for an operation for their disabled brother, Madi, an issue which is more critical-this is not about losing 500 tomans for a goldfish (Panahi's White Balloon)or a pair of sneakers to wear to school (Children of Heaven) or 1000 goldfishes to be bred (Song of Sparrows)
However it is in this respect they are equally similar. The burden of poverty does not for a moment ever let these children lose focus of their goal. Neither they lose love for each other. In fact it is the love for their families that keep them moving. In Children of Heaven, Ali runs the race to win a pair of sneakers for Zara. We could see the desparation, when he runs to death to come "third". Similarly Ayoub risks his life to reach and cross the border to save Madi. Ghobadi through his children always speak of the courage of his Kurdish folks, who inspite of the oppression of its dicators (remember genocide and gas tragedy at Halabcheh), onslaughts of war, still live on with hopes.

However to me these children of Iran ( be it Majidi's, Ghobadi's, Makhmalbaf's) all show the stoic and unrelented resolve and optimism of the Iranian directors and thinkers who have deep faith and love in their culture, to show Western audiences a different and richer image of his homeland as opposed the stereotypical portrayals of Iran by western media.

The children cast in their simple rural natural landscapes of Iran, playing amidst the turquiose blue ponds with orange goldfishes seem to carry on the message to the world about a land shunned and mis-trusted by the west. They tell the story of Iran with loving fathers and brothers and men with deep filial love to give audiences a view of Iran different from its common portrayal in U.S. media as an ideological foe hell-bent on acquiring a nuclear arsenal.

In bringing Iran to the arena of world cinema, it seems all these children are committed equally.

Turtles Can fly

TURTLES CAN FLY
Written and Directed by Bahman Ghobadi.
Music: - Hossein Alizadeh

Often I wonder, what goes into the mind of those who run the countries when they make certain political, geo-political decisions. Of course all these decisions are in the favour of the nation they represent. And most and all time “only their nation”. Hence no qualms are made to obliterate any feeling or sentiment or action which means harms against the nation state. We proudly lead wars against other nations, we even try and silence those voices even within the nation who ever try to question the sanctity of the nation state be it in the form of violent Maoists or the oppressed minorities. But by that time the nation-state is no longer a geographical territory or a demographical entity lined by people of different caste, colour and creed. The Nation state which the statesman leads to war is now symbolic with our own chauvinism-whose claim to power and pride only lies in negating the enemy’s being. And once won, we can then bask in the glory of being a dominant prime power in the world scenario.
Well the above paragraph by this point in time must have established me as the much clichéd anti-war socialist and hence the reader might not pay any further interest to my further writings. In that case, I would request him to leave this article immediately and watch the movie “Turtles Can Fly”. Well of course it is not in true sense an Anti-war film but just brings affront the profanity and ridicules of a war through the different interplays of human emotions and their struggle for existence.
A nation state indeed depends upon its citizens. Hence from the very beginning the nation state invests all its efforts in shaping up the minds of the citizen so that this programmed might of the whole nation can work towards implementation of its pride and glory. Indeed then the children are the most important ingredient for a country to carry on the legacy of a proud nation and thereby shaping a better tomorrow.
And this is exactly where “Turtles Can Fly” strikes you a hard blow. All the protagonists of this movie are children, many even deformed physically and are seen doing stuff, frightening enough to shudder you off your sweet slumber of bright future and proud nation.
This 2004 movie is the first movie shot after the Iraq-U.S war in a refugee camp in Turkistan, in the Iraq-Turkey border. The first scene of the movie sets an extremely melancholic tone showing a teenage girl slowly walking to the tip edge of a cliff (as if to jump off). The next scene is one of the most delightful in the movie showing people in the village standing in rows up on the hill with ropes and trying to fix their television antennae there, while them at the bottom shouting left and right guiding them as to how to fix the antennae to get the clear picture. Amidst these an old man in the village, Ismaeel laments cursing Saddam that in addition to depriving them of water and electricity, now the dictator is stealing them off their skies, by shutting them off to hearing what is happening in the war. This sets the first perspective of the movie. Immediately you sense the tensions and apprehensions of the war. However the tone presenting these acts is in complete contradiction to the grave mood of the people in a refugee camp waiting for news of the war. This is done by the casual and easy-going demeanour of the teenage Satellite. Satellite nick-names so for his acumen in fixing TV satellites in the nearby villages. In fact he also coaxes Ismaeel and his fellow villagers to install a dish antenna at their village. With his limited knowledge and extreme confidence, Satellite is a leader of the children in that village. He is a self-acclaimed guardian of the children, providing them employment, bartering and trading their collective produce and thus fending off for himself and the kids. This apparent light-hearted mood is visibly terrifying when we see young children working to get the land-mines off the fields and Satellite easily selling them in the market. Satellite is their local hero who dreams about America invading into Iraq and ending their woes. The be-spectacled young Satellite leads the young children to the mine-fields to procure mines in a matter-of- fact way. Moreover the children almost die to work for him. This leaves you shocked, questioning whether Satellite is a manipulative youth alluring the children to risk their lives, quite contrary, this is a collusion of all the children in a struggle to live their lives, to sustain themselves, something which is almost forbidden to them in this war-torn territory. Hence we watch in wary young children transacting over mines and guns in the market as easily as over vegetables. The U.N representative in the village has no problems in buying mines procured by young children, however as a lower rate (since these will be de-armed and hence lesser market value). Satellite’s close friend Pashou who has lost one leg in such a venture of finding mines, uses his deformed leg dangling below his torso as a gun and poses to fire the tower guard soldier all in amusement. Their sense of humour leaves you numb. And then you start questioning what war has done to the future stealing them off their innocence, their dreams and thereby rendering the world numb and impotent.
Amidst this light mood are thick dark brush strokes of melancholy and repression brought into the movie through the silence of Agrin and her deep blue eyes. Agrin is the refugee girl from Halabcheh. Halabcheh a village in Iraqi Kurdistan, quite a significant name, reminding of the atrocities and genocide in form chemical attack hailed by Saddam earlier during the Iran-Iraq war. Agrin is living example of such atrocities who wants to get rid of Risa, her blind toddler child she bore due to the rape by the Iraqi soldiers. Her brother Hengov gifted with a power of clairvoyance has lost his both hands due to a mine explosion. Agrin constantly tries to get rid of the child, since the child is an extended part of her insidious bruised, bleeding ulcerous wound and only amputation of the wound would relieve her of her baggage of shame and pain. She denies the child and is almost cruel in her methods of getting rid of her. Agrin who herself is a child, is burdened by her past which lives in Risa and tries to bury that past. Once again, your own dreams and plans of days ahead, of a better future seems to vanish, seeing children brute and cruel in obliterating infants in ingenious ways. Yet amidst the cruelty, the tragedy leaves you with an impending pain, when you weep bitterly, when Agrin leaves the young infant in the mine-field and lightly kissed him before leaving. Your faith on the world and humanity just hits rock bottom.
It is Agrin; Satellite is smitten by and tries to please her in all sorts of way. No wonder he grows wary of Agrin’s brother Hengov who has lost both his hands in a mine explosion. Hengov on the other hand disagrees in conforming to Agrin’s denial of the child and takes it upon himself to protect the child. He in spite of being physically challenged is unable to get rid of his patriarchal ideology and hence thinks Risa as a part of his own family. In these actions he is almost oblivious to Agrin’s sufferings. Hence he is silent to Agrin’s questions about her future being threatened due to Risa. In fact the visual connection of the title “Turtles Can Fly” is connection the blind toddler, his pet turtles and Hengov. Ghobadi himself stated that when he was filming near the water the boy without arms reminded him of the turtles visually. In one scene Hengov, is seen, pulling off a landmine with his mouth, is almost presented as an irony, since though rendered arm-less due to a mine explosion, he needs food for his mouth and hence such risk bearing is necessary to sustain him. This sets Hengov’s attitude as a strong patriarch, who is hell bent to carry on, inspite of the atrocities he is subjected to, almost singing the Kurdish might like a turtle, slow but steady facing all the highs and lows.
On the contrary, hopelessness slowly grows over Agrin. So much so that she could hardly react to the light, fleeting colourful moments that Satellite tried to bring to her through his constant banter. She walks like a zombie through this landscape of poverty, helplessness, and hopelessness.
In the same speed the fate of the war was also coming to a close. Slowly the movie also approaches a tone of greater momentum and fatefulness. In a bid to save Risa (whom the village understands to be Agrin’s toddler blind brother), from a mine field Satellite gets injured. On that very day U.S defeats Iraq. People and children from the village keep on flocking to the city. Little Shirkooh who was a loyal follower of Satellite awed by his knowledge and confidence now leaves for the city with his uncle leaving injured satellite behind. He gifts Satellite a very expensive gift “Broken hand from the fallen statue of Saddam”. This was another striking moment of the movie where much was said without pronouncing anything. Shirkooh also states that now children need not pick up mines. Rather the American soldiers would pay them for handing over and procuring their own rubbles of artefacts and wealth, the crumbling leftovers of the war-worn territory. Saddam’s hand therefore would help Satellite later in realising a good price against it from the Americans. On the same night Agrin drowns Risa and also kills herself, leaving behind a tearful Hengov. At the background the American soldiers as well as the villagers all can now watch the “forbidden” channels brought to the impoverished refugee camp through satellite.
Now rendered lame, Satellite standing at one corner of the road watches in despair advent of the American soldiers and turns away his face from them. The earlier hopes are vanquished. This is beautifully presented through the use of “red fish myth”.
The red fish seem to be a sort of mythical creature for these children. In his efforts to win Agrin’s heart, Satellite tells Agrin he will catch one for her in the sinkhole nearby. When the Americans come, Shirkooh brings him some red fish purchased from the Americans. Satellite is thrilled and amazed. He stares in wonderment and pokes the bag a little, asking "what makes them red?" Perhaps he is thinking more is possible in a world with Americans, after all. But only a moment passes before the water in the bag turns red as well. Then, his hope in the Americans is completely destroyed. It would have been one thing for Satellite to gradually learn his dreams were unrealistic (there's no such thing as red fish), but he had just started to believe his dreams could come true. And then the symbol of these dreams weren't just proven to be a hoax, but they seemed dead. Satellite was mortified and devastated later to find in his pond of red fish, Risa drowned.

The movie seems to me as a catharsis to cure us. After this movie I suddenly became aware of the futility of boundaries and borders. The whole idea of triumph of one nation and the failure of another is similarly meaningless. All throughout our life, in spite of our beliefs in personal gain or loss, in spite of our attempts to holding to our own possessions, we all justify our activities as a way to secure the future of our progenies. We are not fools to think they would not act the way we do, but this is because, in spite of our own small betrayals and selfishness we all believe truly of seamless happy world and
“Imagine there's no countries
It isn't hard to do
Nothing to kill or die for
And no religion too
Imagine all the people
Living life in peace”
----------------- (John Lennon-Imagine)
Honestly this is due to our imagination of such a borderless world that we live today true to the human spirit. That we would live through our progenies in such a world which will celebrate the true spirit of universal brotherhood may sound to us as undoubtedly utopia, yet food for us to drive us through our daily dull and drudgery with hopes. However this movie starkly reminds you that through your activities of winning and harming, making ourselves powerful and others weak, you make yourself incapable of such hopes. Seeing children deprived of innocence, manipulative, self destructive, infants being murdered, shudders you, sends a chill through your spine. You suddenly realise that if this is the fate of the world for all the decisions that you are taking today, you might re-think what you are doing today.
Lastly about the title, Bahman Ghobadi as quoted in “The Progressive” in an interview by Maria Garcia stated that the title is of immense importance to him. The turtles live a very long life and in that whole life they live half in water and half in land. This according to Ghobadi is similar to the lives of the Kurds who live their life partly amidst anguish and partly amidst Joy and like the slow moving turtle still manage to move forward balancing their crustacean burden at the top of their backs.