Blackboards
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DVD Cover Information Actor: Bahman Ghobadi, Behnaz Jafari, Mohamad Karim Rahmati, Rafat Moradi, Said Mohamadi Director: Samira Makhmalbaf DVD: Region Code 1 Audio: English (Unknown); English (Subtitled) Format: Color, DVD, NTSC, Subtitled, Widescreen Picture Format: 1.66:1 Running Time: 85 minutes DVD Release Date: 2004-02-17 Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated) Studio: Wellspring Media |
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Movie Reviews of Blackboards
Movie Review: Not bad but nothing special
Summary: 3 Stars
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.