Blackboards

2000 film
  • Artificial Eye (UK)
  • Leisure Time Features (USA)
  • Wellspring Media (US DVD)
Release date
  • 25 October 2000 (2000-10-25) (U.S.)
Running time
85 minutesCountries
  • Iran
  • Italy
  • Japan
LanguageKurdish

Blackboards (Persian: تخته سیاه, Takhté siah; Kurdish: تەختێ رەش, romanized: Textê Reş) is a 2000 Iranian 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.

Cast

  • Said Mohamadi as 1.Teacher Saeed
  • Behnaz Jafari as Halaleh
  • Bahman Ghobadi as 2.Teacher Rebvar
  • Mohamad Karim Rahmati as Father
  • Rafat Moradi as Pupil Rebvar

Awards

  • "Jury Prize", Official Competition section of the 2000 Cannes Film Festival, France.[3]
  • "Federico Fellini Honor", UNESCO, Paris, 2000.
  • "François Truffaut prize", Giffoni Film Festival in Italy 2000.
  • "Giffoni's Mayor Prize", Giffoni Film Festival, Italy, 2000.
  • "Special cultural Prize", UNESCO, Paris, 2000.
  • "The Grand Jury prize", American Film Institute, USA, 2000

References

  1. ^ "Makhmalbaf Film House: Samira". Archived from the original on 15 May 2007.
  2. ^ a b "Samira's Interview with Haghighat for the movie The Blackboard / English". Archived from the original on 25 February 2009. Retrieved 19 July 2008.
  3. ^ "Festival de Cannes: Blackboards". festival-cannes.com. Archived from the original on 8 March 2012. Retrieved 13 October 2009.

Further reading

  • Rosenbaum, Jonathan (25 April 2003). "Mythic Mission (BLACKBOARDS)". The Chicago Reader. Rosenbaum reviews Blackboards and notes parallels with the 1950 Western, Wagon Master, that was conceived, produced, and directed by John Ford.

External links

  • Takhté siah at IMDb Edit this at Wikidata
  • v
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  • e
Films directed by Samira Makhmalbaf
  • v
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Cannes Film Festival Jury Prize
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1980–2000
2002–present