Blackboards

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?

Details

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

Karim Moradi

Old man

Hassan Mohamadi

Child

Rasool Mohamadi

The boy porter

Somaye Veisee

Little girl