Blackboards (2000)
Overview : 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 : 85m
Companies : Fabrica, Makhmalbaf Film House Productions, RAI
Countries : Iran, Italy, Japan
Keywords : society, teacher, poverty, blackboard, woman director, iranian new wave, kurd, iran-iraq war