Blackboards

The read

It runs a compact 1h 25m.

Synopsis

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?

Ratings

Key crew

• Samira MakhmalbafDirector
• Samira MakhmalbafWriter
• Mohsen MakhmalbafWriter

Cast

• Said MohamadiSaid
• Behnaz JafariHalaleh
• Bahman GhobadiRebwar
• Mohamad Karim RahmatiFather
• Rafat MoradiRibwar
• Mayas RostamiYoung boy storyteller
• Saman AkbariGroup leader
• Ahmad BahramiMarriage registrar
• Karim MoradiOld man
• Hassan MohamadiChild
• Rasool MohamadiThe boy porter
• Somaye VeiseeLittle girl

Stills

Themes