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?
Said Mohamadi
Said
Behnaz Jafari
Halaleh
Bahman Ghobadi
Rebwar
Mohamad Karim Rahmati
Father
Rafat Moradi
Ribwar
Mayas Rostami
Young boy storyteller
Saman Akbari
Group leader
Ahmad Bahrami
Marriage registrar
Karim Moradi
Old man
Hassan Mohamadi
Child
Blackboards is a drama, history, war film released in 2000 exploring themes of society, teacher, poverty, blackboard, woman director, kurd. Directed by Samira Makhmalbaf, it stars Said Mohamadi, Behnaz Jafari, Bahman Ghobadi. 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?
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