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?

Director: Samira Makhmalbaf

Cast

S

Said Mohamadi

Said

Behnaz Jafari

Halaleh

Bahman Ghobadi

Rebwar

M

Mohamad Karim Rahmati

Father

R

Rafat Moradi

Ribwar

M

Mayas Rostami

Young boy storyteller

S

Saman Akbari

Group leader

Ahmad Bahrami

Marriage registrar