Blackboards DVD

Blackboards is an unusual film. First, it's from Iran; second it's directed by a woman, Samira Makhmalbaf; third, she's only 22. Set near the border with Iraq, the film follows a group of itinerant teachers who wander the countryside looking for students, carrying their blackboards with them. At various points a blackboard comes in useful as cover from gunfire, as a stretcher, and, chopped up, as a splint. Though the film is full of social observation, it functions mainly as allegory. Despite the eagerness of the wandering teachers to impart knowledge, their efforts... are largely in vain, and though the film has moments of humour its tone is ultimately rather pessimistic. The director is the daughter of Mohsen Makhmalbaf, himself a noted Iranian director who wrote Samira's earlier film The Apple, a deceptively simple story of two girls who are kept for years in seclusion before social workers order their release. Blackboards is a more elusive film and won't be everyone's cup of tea, but it's thought provoking, often moving and full of insights into an unfamiliar world. --Edward Buscombe [show more]

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