Blackboards

Blackboards — Plot

Itinerant Kurdish teachers, carrying blackboards on their backs, look for students in the hills and villages of Iran, near the Iraqi border during the Iran-Iraq war. Said falls in with a group of old men looking for their bombed-out village; he offers to guide them, and takes as his wife Halaleh, the clan's lone woman, a widow with a young son. Reeboir attaches himself to a dozen pre-teen boys weighed down by contraband they carry across the border; they're mules, always on the move. Said and Reeboir try to teach as their potential students keep walking. Danger is close; armed soldiers patrol the skies, the roads, and the border. Is there a role for a teacher? Is there hope?

• Release date
• September 1, 2000
• Runtime
• 85 min
• Genres
• Drama, History, War
• Director
• Samira Makhmalbaf

Blackboards — Cast

S

Said Mohamadi Said Behnaz Jafari Halaleh Bahman Ghobadi Rebwar

M

Mohamad Karim Rahmati Father

R

Rafat Moradi Ribwar

M

Mayas Rostami Young boy storyteller

S

Saman Akbari Group leader Ahmad Bahrami Marriage registrar