Blackboards

2000 1h 25m FA

👍

6.7

SOLID

★6.7TMDB · 43

DramaHistoryWar

Synopsis

Spoiler shield

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?

“Some stories are better left unspoiled.”

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Cast

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

Credits

Behind the camera

Director: Samira Makhmalbaf
Writers: Zaheer Qureshi, Samira Makhmalbaf, Mohsen Makhmalbaf
Languages: Kurdish, Persian
Countries: Iran, Italy, Japan

Want more? Switch to Cinephile mode in the header for DP, composer, budget, box office, production companies, keywords, and release history.

Did you know?

Fun facts 🍿

1 / 8

RUNTIME

Did you know

85 minutes exactly — the "classic feature" runtime most directors aim for.

MoodPlayr · trivia#01

2 / 8

ERA

Did you know

26 years old — old enough to be someone's favourite childhood film.

MoodPlayr · trivia#02

3 / 8

WORLD

Did you know

Dialogue crosses 2 languages: Kurdish, Persian.

MoodPlayr · trivia#03

4 / 8

WORLD

Did you know

International production across 3 countries: Iran, Italy, Japan.

MoodPlayr · trivia#04

5 / 8

WORLD

Did you know

Lean credit list — fewer than 30 people officially credited.

MoodPlayr · trivia#05

6 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Editor Mohsen Makhmalbaf shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.

MoodPlayr · trivia#06

7 / 8

CAST

Did you know

Said Mohamadi and Behnaz Jafari and Bahman Ghobadi carry the top of the cast.

MoodPlayr · trivia#07

8 / 8

WILD

Did you know

IMDB entry: tt0246266 — still the authoritative cross-reference for credits and trivia.

MoodPlayr · trivia#08

Cinephile deep dive

The take

Samira Makhmalbaf directs. Mohsen Makhmalbaf cuts. Runs lean at under 100 minutes. Produced in Iran, Italy, Japan. Dialogue in Kurdish, Persian.

Trivia

Things worth knowing

185 minutes exactly — the "classic feature" runtime most directors aim for.
226 years old — old enough to be someone's favourite childhood film.
3Dialogue crosses 2 languages: Kurdish, Persian.
4International production across 3 countries: Iran, Italy, Japan.
5Lean credit list — fewer than 30 people officially credited.
6Editor Mohsen Makhmalbaf shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.
7Said Mohamadi and Behnaz Jafari and Bahman Ghobadi carry the top of the cast.
8IMDB entry: tt0246266 — still the authoritative cross-reference for credits and trivia.
9Only 43 TMDB ratings — you're getting ahead of the curve on this one.

The technical file

Editing: Mohsen Makhmalbaf
Runtime: 85 min · 1h 25m
Status: Released
Original language: FA
IMDB: Blackboards (2000)

Also by

Samira Makhmalbaf

Trailers & featurettes

Watch the pieces

Community reviews

What people are saying

CRCulver2018-09-13
★ 5/10
Released in 2000, Blackboards 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 education to this illiterate, impoverished region in exchange for some meagre income. Two of the teachers quickly branch off from the group, and the film follows their adventures. Saïd (Saïd Mohamadi) falls in with a group of nomads trying to get back to their native land across the border in Iraqi Kurdistan. Rebwar (Bahman Ghobadi) meets a group of children transporting contraband over the border. The teacher's efforts to help the locals learn to read and write are rebuffed time and time again, to the point that the film takes on the quality of a play by Samuel Beckett or Harold Pinter. Saïd's attempts to get through to the lone woman in the party (Behnaz Jafari) are the height of absurdism. Samira Makhmalbaf's visual aesthetic is mainly that of her father's early films, and the film evokes the beauty of this mountainous region, as well as the desolation that causes its poverty. And it's cool that the dialogue is in Kurdish, as there aren't so many films available in the West that highlight this people. However, I must say that I found other aspects disappointing. Blackboards makes a thought-provoking point that the poor are too busy surviving to worry about ideals like education, but the script doesn't really hang together. The acting is also inconsistent, with a big disconnect between the professional actors and the local Kurds who were brought on. You might take a chance on Blackboards. I certainly don't regret seeing it, it's memorable and there's some humour. But I remain unsatisfied.

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