Samira Makmalbaf makes her sophomore feature outing with this bold, elliptical look at the plight of marginalized populations in modern Iran. The film opens with a group of Kurdish teachers lugging blackboards on their backs in the rocky hinterland looking for illiterates to educate. The group splits up in a panic when they are suddenly confronted by a helicopter border patrol. Two pedagogues, Reeboir (Bahman Ghobadi) and Said (Said Mohamadi), camouflage their chalkboards with mud and take separate paths. Reeboir runs into a bevy of semi-feral adolescent boys who look haggard beyond their years; they spent their entire lives hauling (smuggled) goods through harrowing mountain passes. Reeboir tries to convince the lads that they should learn to read, but he is firmly rebuffed. Meanwhile, Said stumbles upon a wizened old man with a urinary problem and an attractive widowed daughter. Said eventually marries the woman, using his blackboard as dowry. Makmalbaf manages to imbue the film with a mood of fear and loss, making the characters' indomitable spirit all the more moving. This film was screened in competition at the 2000 Cannes Film Festival. ~ Jonathan Crow, All Movie Guide
Review
Samira Makhmalbaf's drama Takhte Siah (Blackboards) is a well-made, if inaccessible, tale of humanity. Most audiences may have a hard time understanding why these Kurdish teachers are wandering through the inhospitable mountains looking for students. Even more puzzling is why unseen helicopters and gunmen insist on hunting them down at every opportunity. Armed with a historical perspective about the area, those looking for a real artistic challenge may find a lot to like about Blackboards. The inherently dismal tale of Kurds traveling along a rocky landscape is fortunately humanized by a few factors. One teacher's ambition touches the lives of young people who make a living smuggling goods and milking goats, and their brief lessons suggest a break in the routine of survival and hardship. Another teacher travels with a large group of aging men in search of their homeland. He gets married to (and divorced from) a widowed mother and manages to use his burdensome blackboard as protection for his new family. Even with these fleeting moments of inspiration, this film is too bleak and confusing for most viewers, although those well-informed about the pastoral and agricultural people of the Kurdistan region may find their very presence in an Iranian film to be a successful venture. ~ Andrea LeVasseur, All Movie Guide
Blackboards (Persian: تخته سیاه, Takhté siah) is a 2000Iranian film directed by Samira Makhmalbaf. It focuses on a group of Kurdish refugees after the chemical bombing of Halabja by Saddam Hussein's Iraq during the Iran–Iraq War. The screenplay was co-written by Makhmalbaf with her father, Mohsen Makhmalbaf. The dialogue is entirely in Kurdish.[1][2] Makhmalbaf describes it as "something between reality and fiction. Smuggling, being homeless, and people’s efforts to survive are all part of reality... the film, as a whole, is a metaphor."[2]
The film was an international co-production between the Makhmalbaf Productions of Iran, the Italian companies Fabrica and Rai Cinemafiction and the Japanese company T-Mark.
