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| Blackboards | 
 enlarge | Director: Samira Makhmalbaf
Actors: Said Mohamadi, Behnaz Jafari, Bahman Ghobadi, Mohamad Karim Rahmati, Rafat Moradi
Category: DVD
Buy New: $30.17
New (3) Used (3) from $24.27
Avg. Customer Rating:  9 reviews
Format: Pal
Languages: English (Subtitled), English (Original Language)
Discs: 1
Aspect Ratio: 1.66:1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.2
Dimensions (in): 7.1 x 5.4 x 0.6
EAN: 5021866198309
ASIN: B00005MFI5
Theatrical Release Date: 2000
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Condition: Brand new Item. CD, DVD, Book, VHS more than 400 000 titles to choose from. ALL days Low Price !
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| Customer Reviews: Read 4 more reviews...
A Very Powerful Film March 31, 2008
Let's talk about Iran first. I've never heard any urban myth to the effect that they have 2000 words for sand, but if I did hear such a myth, the visuals in a film such as this would tempt me to believe it.
Okay, the movie itself was excellent. Great acting and a very simple story that shows us a perspective that's probably very unlike our own. There is a continuity error about the blackboard itself, but I'll forgive that because everything else is done so well. There's a reason it won at Cannes, and I'll watch it again.
You Cant Hold Us Down December 23, 2007
Blackboards is movie about courage and the persistence of the human spirit. The movie is basically about nomadic teachers who roam the Iranian Kurdistan area with blackboards attached to their backs looking for children to teach in exchange for a pittance. I have never in my life seen such dedication to educate. They climb wild, unforgiving mountains and brave merciless fire from border soldiers rifles using their blackboards as shields.
Two of these teachers are primarily focused on. They part at a junction and one goes up the craggy mountain and runs into desperate young boys who risk their lives at the border smuggling stolen goods and the other runs into a bunch of misplaced Kurdish nomads trying to find their way home and somehow, absurdly marries a wife. They both try to to teach unwilling pupils; it's almost perversely comical to watch.
The movie is realistically shot. You feel like you are in the zone and a major highlight is when one of the teachers pretends to read a letter in a language foreign to him to a father desperate for news.
However, the conclusion is empty. I kind of felt sorry for the director and myself. It would be difficult to hold together and conclude a story with such important and varied themes. It's worth watching to understand what it is like to be an Iranian Kurd and why it is impossible to hold the human spirit down.
 Not bad but nothing special May 13, 2007
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
A few years ago Iranian films were the choice for Guardian columnists telling us that they were the greatest thing you were ever likely to see. Sadly, its just not the case. Granted we don't exactly have a large choice of Iranian cinema in the West and most of it is one dimensional this film is sadly one of these.
The film centers around travelling school teachers, condemned by their peers for choosing a profession they could hardly make a living on (seeing as they have to travel with their blackboards on their backs desperately trying to find students in the mountains on the border between Iran and Iraq where most seem to be more interested in farming or smuggling)
One meets up with Kurdish nomads trying to return to their homeland while another meets up with children smuggling goods across the border. While the film does have some moments of interest much of it really is of the stereotype sell to the western audience variety. The Kurdish lady one of the teachers marries is this almost zombie like character who can barely string a sentence together. I really feel the best gauge of a film is to watch it with people from that geographical area and see what their impression is of it. Friends I know have either had a look of utter bemusement at this character or cracked up laughing a such a one dimensional character that looks more like a parody from an early evening TV comedy show in the middle east.
Then we have the smugglers, mostly children they are shot at by border guards, the teacher is forced to cut up his blackboard in order to use it as a splint but again, while some may see this film as 'an eye opener to an unknown part of the Middle East' its not really an issue unknown to anyone from that area. Everyone in Turkey knows about towns in the south east who have shopping areas with sometimes better electrical goods than you find in Istanbul brought in over the border, everyone in Iraq knows the same goes for Northern Iraq.
The sad thing is, this film does cover some serious issues. The heavy mining on the borders between Middle Eastern countries (Iran, Iraq, Turkey) and the effect on the ordinary people who live on those borders. Pity the film has no depth.
 Trudging For Godot August 6, 2006
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
I was immediately struck by images of Samuel Beckett plays while watching this film. Those who criticize its slow pace and long periods of inaction are missing quite a bit of artistry. The editing is first-rate, especially near the end when Iranian soldiers open fire in two different scenes.
Like Beckett, Ms. Makhmalbaf focuses upon the plight of the poverty-stricken, whose lives spin in circles of nothingness. While "Godot" stayed underneath a tree, "Blackboards" moves along at a resigned pace. I find it a masterful piece of work, no matter what the director's age. Her use of Kurdish director Bahman Ghobadi and his actor friend Said Mohammed as two of the teachers was a wise choice.
Fellow Americans who expect fast action and glib speech will not like this film. It is at once realistic and symbolistic. A coworker couldn't get through the first ten minutes, but then again he has different tastes than I.
The world we don't see on CNN May 28, 2006
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
The most awesome aspect of this movie is its locations & shooting. Blackboards is a slow moving story - a tale that contrasts the hardships of life on the move in the remote outposts of Kurdish Iraq with the deep intent of two human beings. The story has two twin themes running in parallel, both involving nomadic teachers scouting for students who can in turn pay the teachers for their next meal. One teacher joins a bunch of young illiterate boys who work in cross border smuggling outfits for large unseen mafia bosses, while the other joins a group of migrating societal rejects who aim to get back to their land and flee the bombing of Saddam. The movie is extremely slow and laborious in setting the context & you feel much a part of the situation & begin to empathise with the key characters in the movie. And therein lies the charm of this movie - in exposing our television conditioned minds to aspects of life we barely knew existed. Worth a watch, only if slow and offbeat films is your genre of interest.
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