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Movie: Death in Gaza (2004)
James Miller goes to the Palestine territory to film the children of the Intifada and is killed by Israeli firepower. His murder is a stunning coda to a filmed account of how war corrupts the innocence of children. Miller begins the film acquainting us with the geography of Palestine, the West Bank, the Gaza Strip. We meet, get up close and personal, with the battle hardened "martyrs" of the Hamas jihad. Hidden by masks they seduce the children, so needy for heroes and mentors, with speeches of death and destruction. Blow yourself up and go to paradise. We meet the children, feckless, disingenuous children learning to kill, feeling the heft of a gun, basking in the praise of the masked warriors. There are the girls, praying for the destruction of Israel, eager to emulate their male counterparts. The children seduce us with their wide-eyed appeal, their ability to absorb the most horrible blows as their homes are destroyed. One child points to his uncle's car which has been tossed into the limbs of a tree by an Israeli bulldozer that's just leveled his home. The children watch all this, relate the stories of the martyrs, and seem with their open faces and fetching smiles and flashing dark eyes not to have a clue that they're living in a hell. They express the earnest belief that all will be well once the Israelis are (1) killed and (2)removed from the area between the Mediteranean and the Sea of Galilee. The innocence and naiveté are beguiling, disturbing, sad. At the last Miller meets his brutal, surprising death in the murky dusk, in the rubble of the streets of this hopeless settlement. There seems no way out. Violence begets violence. The righteous shriek their slogans. Human life is disposable. This brilliant film solves nothing. Don't believe me? Read the viewers' comments on the Message Boards. Read the insults, the disparaging remarks, the certitude of bigots and believers. James Miller. R.I.P. All the innocent children of Gaza.
"Turtles Can Fly" is the third feature from internationally acclaimed Iranian filmmaker Bahman Ghobadi ("A Time For Drunken Horses"). Written, directed and produced by Ghobadi, the film features of cast of local non-actor children. "Turtles Can Fly" is set in Ghobadi’s native Kurdistan on the eve of the American invasion of Iraq. Thirteen-year-old Soran (Soran Ebrahim) is known as “Satellite,†for his installation of dishes and antennae for local villages looking for news of Saddam. He is the dynamic leader of the children, organizing the dangerous but necessary sweeping and clearing of the minefields. He then arranges trade-ins for the unexploded mines. The industrious Satellite falls for an unlikely orphan (Avaz Latif), a sad-faced girl traveling with her brother Henkov (Hirsh Feyssal), who appears to have the gift of clairvoyance. The siblings are care-taking a three-year-old, whose connection to the pair is discovered as harsh truths are unveiled. The devastation to this land and its inhabitants is revealed in the matter-of-fact perspective of the children and is equally displayed with every poignant detail of its unbearable nature. The exquisitely haunting mountains play backdrop to violence and tragedy, but at the same time the heart and humor of the children is an undeniable force. "Turtles Can Fly" won the Golden Shell at San Sebastian and the Silver Bear at Chicago and is the Iranian entry to the Academy for 2004 Foreign Film consideration.
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