Turtles Can Fly - Links to Download Completely

As we said something on this great film, but here is a synopsis about it.

The film is set in a Kurdish refugee camp on the Iraqi-Turkish border on the eve of the US invasion of Iraq. Thirteen-year-old Kak Satellite is known as "Satellite" for his installation of satellite dishes and antennas for local villagers looking for news of Saddam Hussein and the impending war. He is the dynamic leader of the children, organizing the dangerous but necessary sweeping and clearing of the minefields, and then arranges trade-ins for the unexploded mines.

Satellite falls for an unlikely orphan named Agrin, a sad-faced girl traveling with her disabled but smart brother Henkov, who appears to have the gift of clairvoyance. The siblings are taking care of a three-year-old, whose connection to the pair is discovered as harsh truths about these children are revealed.

Here is the complete links to Download the movie on the net directly:

Part I

Part II

Part III

Part IV

Part V

Part VI

Part VII

Part VIII

Enjoy.

Turtles Can Fly by Bahman Ghobadi

Bahman Ghobadi was born on February 1st, 1969 in Baneh, province of Kurdistan in Iran. He was the first son of the four born in his family. He got his B.A. in film Directing from the Iranian Broadcasting College.

He lived in Baneh up to age 12. Because of civil disputes, his whole family emigrated to Sanandaj (Center of Kurdistan Province in Iran).

He recieved his diploma in Sanandaj & he came to Tehran in 1992 for his advanced studies. Ghobadi started his artistic career in field of Industrial photography from 1998. He was never properly graduated because he believed every thing he had learned was all from his short films. All this experience helped him to expand his individualistic vision of the world that surrounded him.

He started filmmaking with 8mm. He made a few short documentaries as a starting point.
His short films, as of the mid 1990's, received many foreign & domestic awards. "Life in fog" opened a new opportunity in his career.

This film was accepted for many different International awards & became "The most famous documentary ever made in the history of Iranian cinema".

With the making of the full-length feature 'A Time For Drunken Horses (1999)' he became a recognized professional director all over. This is the first Kurdish full feature film in the history of the Iranian cinema, and Ghobadi is the first Kurdish director in the history Iranian cinema.

A Time For Drunken Horses

Ayoub is a young boy living in a village near the border of Iraq in Kurdistan Province. He works in the bazaar along with his little sister. When his father dies, he is obliged to protect his three sisters and sick brother, Madi.

Madi needs surgery, without which, he is expected to live a maximum of 7 to 8 months. Ayoub tries to smuggle merchandise by mule into Iraq in an attempt to raise money for Madi’s operation.

The owner of the mules refuses to pay Ayoub and his group after the job. Ayoub again looks for a job to pay for his brother's operation. He gets a second chance to smuggle goods using the mule his uncle lends him after breaking his arm.

Rojin, Ayoub's sister, marries a suitor living in a village on the border of Iraq on the condition that he smuggles Madi into Iraq for his operation. Despite Ayoub's objections the wedding takes place and they all move to the border village, including Madi.

The groom's mother prevents Madi from going with them and gives Ayoub a mule as a conciliatory gift. Ayoub and Madi along with the acquired mule return to their native village and sell it to get money for Madi's operation.

- Kurdish Director, Kurdish Filmmaker "Bahman Ghobadi" -

Another Film to this great man, Marooned in Iraq, in which "Mirza", a famous Kurdish musician, hears that his ex-wife Hanare is in trouble.
He accompanied by his two sons, embarks on an adventurous journey across the Iran-Iraq border to find her. They finally find her in a refugee camp, disfigured by the chemical attacks.

One of his best and well-known movies is "Turtles Can Fly".

The first film to be made in Iraq since the fall of Saddam Hussein, the devastating Turtles Can Fly is set in a Kurdish refugee camp on the Iraqi-Turkish border just before the US invasion in spring 2003.

Director Bahman Ghobadi concentrates on a handful of orphaned children and their efforts to survive the appalling conditions: there's the entrepreneurial Satellite (Soran Ebrahim), the armless clairvoyant Henkov (Hirsh Feyssal), and his traumatised sister Agrin (Avaz Latif), who herself is responsible for a blind toddler.

Dedicated according to the Kurdish Ghobadi:

"To all the innocent children in the world - the casualties of the policies of dictators and fascists".

Turtles Can Fly vividly immerses the viewer in the nightmarish realities of daily existence in this makeshift community that's located within a forbidding natural landscape. There's no running water or electricity, the fear of gas attacks is palpable, and kids use their bare-hands to defuse land mines in the surrounding fields, which they then trade for machine guns at a market.

Turtles Can Fly is as bold a presentation of the Kurdish experience as has appeared on the big screen since the great Turkish Kurdish director Yilmaz Guney made Yol. And it has clearly touched a nerve among Iraq's Kurds.

A week after the film's premiere in Arbil, Gobadi still bore the bruises from what he described as "the astonishing reaction" of the audience. "They almost hugged me to death," he said. "I was telling a part of their pain and their memories. I take it as a compliment. If they had not believed what was in the film, they would not have reacted like that."

It is Gobadi's biggest production to date, involving thousands of Kurdish villagers as extras, as well as real US soldiers and helicopters. And he admits that without the help of the Kurdish Regional Government, led by Nechirvan Barzani, the film would never have been made. "We didn't have the money, or any sophisticated equipment, so their help made the difference."

Filming was tough, he says. "We endured hours of freezing weather, filming in the mud and the mountains. And believe me, what these children did in my film and put up with for my film, the Hollywood children could never do. The children were acting their lives. That's why they seem so real."

To read the best article describing the "Turtles Can Fly", click here.

Again Cholera

Sorry for not having any post lately, in fact I was so busy in a way couldn't find time to blog, but no need to worry, here I am, let's start again.

This month I am working outside Hawler city, during our 2 years of rotation we have to spend 3 months outside the city, this was my first month, I was working in Hareer, which is a small town belonging to Erbil Province.

During my work here, I've received many official papers from both the Ministry of Health and from the Directorate of Health in Hawler, notifying us about the Cholera Outbreak in the South Cities of Iraq, and to take all necessary measures to prevent it's occurance or to combat it.

This is not the first time, last year there were another outbreak in this country, but that time was in the north region, and in Kurdistan.

According to the Al-Jazeera English official website, a state of emergency has been declared in Iraq's Babil Province after six people died from cholera.

It's worth to mention majority of Iraqi people don't have pure water, and the route of spreading this disease is feco-oral.

To read more on BBC, click here, and on Al-Jazeera English, click here.

I think that's all for now.

Soran Mama Hama

The original article written by late Soran Mama Hama can be read in Kurdish and English translation, thanks to Dr Kamal Mirawdeli from Kurdish Media.

In Kurdish, click here.

In English, click here.

In another step, the Director-General of UNESCO, Koїchiro Matsuura, condemned the murder of Soran Mama Hama, shot to death on 21 July in the suburbs of Kirkuk in Kurdistan.

“I condemn the murder of Soran Mama Hama,” said Mr Matsuura. “This crime, targeting a courageous journalist, illustrates yet again the danger media professionals working in Iraq are exposed to. In order for freedom of expression, cornerstone of democracy, to exist in the country, authorities must pay greater heed to the safety of journalists.”

Soran Mama Hama, 23, had been working for three years for Leven, independent bimonthly magazine published in the Kurd language. According to his colleagues, he received threats after writing articles critical of local officials. The journalist was shot in his home in Rasheed Awa, a suburb of Kirkuk, the evening of July 21 by four unidentified gunmen who fled by car.

According to the NGO Reporters withour Borders, 217 media professionals have been killed in Iraq since 2003; 13 of them were killed in Kirkuk.

To read the exact article, click here.

RIP kaka Soran...

Tell Me What Color Do You Like, Will Tell Your Personality

Psychiatrists now believe that color, which is a personal choice, will determine the personality of that person, for example:

Red:

From old times, red color was having a very respectful place, people were afraid from this color. It’s the color that resembles blood, struggle, aggression, hate, and fire.

Modern Turkish republic selected this color to be the dominant color in their flag, because of their long, tough, and bloody struggles.

People who loves this color, has strong personality, at the same time, they can’t be carelessness in their lives. They decide very rapidly over things and people and this will make them in trouble, specially regarding their friendships. But they are usually very cautious and smart.

As we said, they find difficulties in keeping friendships.

Purple:

People who loves this color, are usually tolerant, they are too kind with others, they do care and put consideration to others living around them.

And because they are usually smiling to others, and their kindness, people loving them.

We should also say that purple lovers usually can accept and take the difficulties in their lives with very big heart, means psychologically they are very stable.

Let’s not forget, purple color also representing love and sex.

Blue:

If you love this color, you can easily control your emotions and feelings. Because of calmness and tolerance, usually people showing respect to them, in turn, they love others respecting them.

They are shy, which make them lonely most of the times. Other people’s ignorance will tired them.

The most important characteristic of blue lovers, they try their best to be the on the top in every aspect of life.

I guess, that's all for now...

Take care.

Freedom of Expression in Kurdistan - Soran Mama Hama

- Late Soran Mama Hama, Symbol of Freedom -

Sadly, this is the price that free man should pay, this is the tax that you should pay when you try to raise your voice, when you report on the responsible people here in South Kurdistan, the most stable and secure portion of newly Iraq....

Soran Mama Hama, a young 23 years old journalist, wrote articles for one of the Kurdish language Sulaimaniyah based independent magazine here in Kurdistan "Livin" who have been assassinated by unknown armed men, in Kirkuk on 22nd of this month, after publishing some articles, which seems to be against some "gangsters" in this region...

Here is the link to the last published article to the late journalist Soran Mama Hama. click here.

It's in Kurdish and talking about the "Prostitution Phenomenon in Kirkuk city" and how many officials in the government involved, even he said that he has a list of these officials but for some "social aspects", we (Livin Magazin) are not going to publish it now....

Here is some reactions to his assassination:

Human rights and press freedom monitors are strongly condemning the murder of Iraqi-Kurdish journalist Soran Mama Hama.

In an interview with the Voice of America's Kurdish Service, Ahmed Mira, editor-in-chief of Livin paid tribute to the courageous young journalist:

"Without a doubt, Soran Mama Hama was of one of the most prominent and professional of journalists, with a great future in front of him."

Joel Campagna, Middle East Program Coordinator for the Committee to Protect Journalists, said:

"We are extremely concerned about the death of Soran Mama Hama. It's a frightening attack on a journalist which, I think, will send a chilling message to all journalists unless those responsible for this terrible crime are identified and brought to justice."

His murder made an echo among Kurdish people and so many articles wrote on this occasion, but what I liked the most was this article:

""Kurdish reactions to Soran’s assassination""

Soran Mama Hama was assassinated by yesterday’s robbers and today’s murderers

By Kaywan Hawrami – Halabja, 27 July 2008
Translated by Dr Kamal Mirawdeli

For God’s sake, every day they give us a new model of evil deeds as present: robbery, working as mercenaries for enemies (jashayati), corruption, dictatorship, murder, mafia, etc. These all have been the models that [Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) and Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) have been offering us. Once people were praying that we would get rid of these robbers, then they became jash (paid mercenaries) of [regional] countries and they are still doing this; then they became dictators and have smothered the country with their injustice; then dictatorship was not sufficient for them they became mafia groups.

For long time people were praying that they would give up robbery but God made them worse; they became jash of regional countries and sold our country and thus became dictators without spending much effort. However, jashayati came to an end, and then they offered new models to us all of which were utterly useless for this country. For some years now they have introduced a new model to us called the model of being-mafias.

This model is very old in Europe but it has recently reached Kurdistan and been applied by our officials. One of the tasks of these mafia groups is to persecute and martyr those journalists who say the truth. The first martyr was Dr Abdulsattar Tahir Sharif. The latest is Soran Mama Hama. Both of them were killed by these two parties. Both of them were critical of Kurdish power: Abdulsattar criticised and exposed their past, Soran exposed their present. That is why they killed both of them

But these mafias do not give a damn about the truth; they do not know how to look at the facts. They only know how to kill, how to steal the wealth and property of people, they have come to ruin the country and prevent anyone from saying anything. They want to rewrite Kurdish history with their filthy hands and inherit it to us. How idiotic, blind and ignorant they are.

The president of the region and his vassals think that by martyring Kaka Soran they can silence us! These mafias think that anyone saying the truth has crossed the red line! Again I repeat: how idiotic you are! I am afraid this all what you are capable of thinking and use this mentality for brutality. You do not know that by martyring Kaka Soran you have only sharpened the points of our pens. I am surprised by your ignorance!

When I heard the news of the assassination of Soran Mama Hama I immediately believed that it is your job because apart from ignorant people like you no one else [in Kurdish society] resorts to rusty bullets. You still have these rusty bullets in your pockets that the [Ba’thist] regime had offered to you so that you would complete the work that the regime had started. I see no difference between you and the previous Ba’th regime because both of you are inspired by a rotten mind, both of you are the product of a rotten culture and mentality of the Medieval ages, Both of you have been nurtured by the filthy milk of A’flaq {Ba’th], It is enough, From now on we will face each other: you with your rusty knives and we with the points of our pens. You with your weapons; and we with our consciences. Let us who will win the future!


RIP kaka Soran...

Solar and Lunar eclipses to be watched in Kurdistan next month

I was surfing the net, and found this news, that finally the Solar and Lunar eclipses will be watched in Kurdistan next month.

A partial solar eclipse will be watched in the Iraqi Kurdistan region on August 1 along with other countries in Asia, Africa and Europe, while a lunar eclipse will occur on August 16, a meteorologist said on Saturday.

Dara Hassan Faraj, the director of the Sulaimaniya Meteorological Department, told Aswat al-Iraq – Voices of Iraq – (VOI):

"The solar eclipse will occur at 2:00 p.m. Baghdad local time and would continue for less than 15 minutes"

Faraj also expected the lunar eclipse to be watched by the Kurdish residents at 9:00 p.m.

Let's see what will happen next month....

Even Our Animals "Cont."

Roj Bash...

Finally I could manage to start publishing again, sorry for not publishing anything lately, but actually I was somehow busy with work.

Meanwhile, I found something on the BBC site, that proves something very important, and directly related to our old post, about renaming and changing the scientific animals in the North Kurdistan, Turkish Kurdistan, here is the news , this news last updated on Tuesday, 8 March, 2005:

Turkey renames 'divisive' animal

Turkey has said it is changing the names of three animals found on its territory to remove references to Kurdistan or Armenia.

The environment ministry says the Latin names of the red fox, the wild sheep and the roe deer will be altered.

The red fox for instance, known as Vulpes Vulpes Kurdistanica, will now be known as Vulpes Vulpes. Turkey has uneasy relations with neighbouring Armenia and opposes Kurdish separatists in Turkey.

The ministry said the old names were contrary to Turkish unity.

"Unfortunately there are many other species in Turkey which were named this way with ill intentions. This ill intent is so obvious that even species only found in our country were given names against Turkey's unity," a ministry statement quoted by Reuters news agency said.

Some Turkish officials say the names are being used to argue that Armenians or Kurds had lived in the areas where the animals were found.

Name Changes:

Red fox known as Vulpes Vulpes Kurdistanica becomes Vulpes Vulpes.

Wild sheep called Ovis Armeniana becomes Ovis Orientalis Anatolicus.

Roe deer known as Capreolus Capreolus Armenus becomes Capreolus Cuprelus Capreolus.

Turkey has tense ties with its eastern neighbour Armenia, which it does not officially recognise.

Armenians accuse Turkey of genocide, saying 1.5 million of their people died or were deported from their homelands under Turkish Ottoman rule.

Turkey denies the genocide and says the death count is inflated.

For the last two decades, Turkey has also been fighting Kurdish separatists, who have sought an independent state in Turkey's south-east.

Thanks for BBC for publishing such interesting news.

Al-Azhar University will open an Islamic Institute in Kurdistan

And finally they decided to open an Islamic Institute in the Kurdistan Region, it comes in PUK Media that:

The”Sawt al-Azhar” newspaper which is issued by al- Azhar University in Cairo, announced that, according to an agreement inked by the (KRG) Minister of Religious Affairs and the Azhar Representative Abdel Fatah Alam, an institute will be opened in Kurdistan region. It will be the first of its kind in Iraq.

The newspaper said that al-Azhar University will dispatch 3 specialists in religion and administration to Erbil in order to complete the preparations of opening the Institute.
Al-Azhar al-Shareef is the largest Islamic and Scientific Source in the world. More than one million students, among them 15 from Kurdistan region, study in the aforementioned university.

This is new for a hight Islamic source to announce such step, although they said that there was an Islamic Institute int the region in the early nineties, which last till the end of last decade, but later they closed, why, I don't know.

Let's see what will bring this step to our region and to our religions.

I Love You

I love this poem too much, let me share it with you.

I AM AFRAID

You say that you love rain,
but you open your umbrella
when it rains…

You say that you love the sun,
but you find a shadow spot
when the sun shines…

You say that you love the wind,
But you close your windows
when wind blows…

This is why I am afraid;
You say that you love me too…


by "William Shakespeare"