Blackboards
2000 · 85 MIN · IMDB 6.8 · 2,969 VOTES · DIR. Samira Makhmalbaf
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?
Dialogue Timeline — 821 lines
A SAMPLE ACROSS THE RUNTIME — EVERY LINE IS SEARCHABLE
00:00:17 MAKHMALBAF FILM HOUSE
00:04:52 And your wife?
00:07:18 - How many pupils will you find? - Two or three.
00:10:18 his sister, his father and his brother
00:13:57 Show me the way.
00:16:15 to read and write.
00:18:22 Let us pass.
00:21:02 Wait!
00:23:16 Can you show us the way, just as far as the border?
00:25:16 I'm thirsty.
00:28:19 Yes.
00:32:26 Hayyaz?
00:34:24 we went our separate ways
00:38:51 Lift your hand.
00:43:21 Hurry up.
00:49:47 we climbed up high, to the top of the mountain.
00:52:19 It was tasty!
00:57:24 Please, sir, have you seen my wife?
01:00:08 You still won't answer? I'll give you a zero for your father.
01:07:30 - Do you want a teacher? - No.
01:12:28 Don't be afraid, my darling.
01:15:49 It's not true!
01:19:12 May God keep you from solitude!
01:21:45 Adaptation: Mamad Haghighat and Manaf