Blackboards

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?

Cast

Said Mohamadi

Said Mohamadi

as Said

Behnaz Jafari

Behnaz Jafari

as Halaleh

Bahman Ghobadi

Bahman Ghobadi

as Rebwar

Mohamad Karim Rahmati

Mohamad Karim Rahmati

as Father

Rafat Moradi

Rafat Moradi

as Ribwar

Mayas Rostami

Mayas Rostami

as Young boy storyteller

Saman Akbari

Saman Akbari

as Group leader

Ahmad Bahrami

Ahmad Bahrami

as Marriage registrar

Mohamad Moradi

Mohamad Moradi

as Match maker

Karim Moradi

Karim Moradi

as Old man

Reviews

CRCulver

Released in 2000, <i>Blackboards</i> was the second film by Samira Makhmalbaf, daughter of acclaimed Iranian auteur Mohsen Makhmalbaf and a precocious director in her own right. As the film opens, a group of itinerant teachers lug blackboards into the mountains of Iranian Kurdistan, seeking to bring...

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