Movie Man Mike delivers two new reviews:

The Keeper: The Legend of Omar Kayyam. (A-) Run, don’t walk to see this movie as you only have a limited time to see it at the theater. This film is so “independent” that it has no distribution company and it is currently only showing on one theater in the whole United States. Filmed in Uzbekistan, this film’s setting is split between modern-day America and ancient Persia. The film is about a young boy whose family has migrated to the United States from Iran. The boy is awed by a story his sick brother relates to him which takes place in Persia. His search to uncover the ending of the story leads him to appreciate the value of preserving heritage and culture, and he makes a meaningful discovery about himself. This film is one of the better films I have seen this year.
I was fortunate enough to go to this film last Saturday (even though I could find almost no reviews about this film). As it turns out, the director and one of the actors were at the theater to talk about the film and answer questions. Unless this past weekend’s attendance was high enough to justify extending the showing of the film, it will only be at the Inwood Theater until Thursday of this week. After that, you probably won’t get to see it again until it comes out on DVD in March of 2006.

Turtles can Fly. (C+) This was my weekend to see films set in the Middle East. This film is set in Northern Iraq just prior to invasion of Iraq by the United States. It depicts a group of children led by one boy, named Satellite. It shows what the children do to survive, which consists mostly of deactivating land mines and bartering them for food or technology. A brother and sister and a small child show up as refugees in the children’s camp and begin to create problems for Satellite. Satellite has a crush on the sister, and he soon learns that the brother, who has no arms because of an encounter with a land mine, is clairvoyant. The film has a tragic ending and it’s one of those films that isn’t really wrapped up in a nice neat little bow as we Americans seem to like. Also, the message and the meaning of the title are not really clear. As I watched the film, I kept wondering whether it was supposed to be a depiction of any sort of reality of the conditions in Iraq leading up to the war. All in all, I had mixed feelings about having spent my money to rent this one.