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Blackboards (2002)

tomatometer

82

Average Rating: 7.1/10
Critic Reviews: 11
Fresh: 9 | Rotten: 2

No consensus yet.

audience

67

liked it
Average Rating: 3.6/5
User Ratings: 1,128

My Rating

Movie Info

In a ravaged, brutally beautiful mountain landscape along the Iran-Iraq border, a group of teachers, with blackboards strapped to their backs, roam the countryside in search of pupils. After an attack by an army helicopter, two of the teachers, Said and Reeboir, separate from the group. Reeboir travels the dirt roads with a gang of illiterate boys who smuggle stolen goods across the border. Meanwhile, Said joins up with a group of old and tired men who, after years of being refugees, struggle to

Feb 17, 2004

Leisure Time

All Critics (39) | Top Critics (12) | Fresh (26) | Rotten (9) | DVD (3)

When I first saw Blackboards three years ago I was surprised as well as puzzled that in some ways it reminded me of John Ford's 1950 western Wagon Master.

April 25, 2003 Full Review Source: Chicago Reader | Comment
Chicago Reader
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A heartening tale of small victories and enduring hope.

January 24, 2003 Full Review Source: San Francisco Chronicle | Comment
San Francisco Chronicle
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There's no denying the strength of these simple images, and the bleak message of learning to sort out your real priorities in times of strife.

January 17, 2003 Full Review Source: Toronto Star | Comment
Toronto Star
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A selection of scenes in search of a movie.

January 17, 2003 Full Review Source: Globe and Mail | Comment
Globe and Mail
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Its metaphors are opaque enough to avoid didacticism, and the film succeeds as an emotionally accessible, almost mystical work.

January 17, 2003 Full Review Source: Boston Globe | Comment
Boston Globe
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It is a testament of quiet endurance, of common concern, of reconciled survival.

January 1, 2003 Comment
New Republic
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The entire film is saved by its periphery, where Makhamalbaf stops trying to teach us a lesson.

November 4, 2006 Full Review Source: Goatdog's Movies | Comment

life for these people is so hard that the mere depiction of a single day provides enough drama to where a grand and complex plot seems all but unnecessary

February 8, 2004 Full Review Source: Movie Metropolis | Comment
Movie Metropolis

It's a stunning lyrical work of considerable force and truth.

June 8, 2003 Full Review Source: Ozus' World Movie Reviews | Comment
Ozus' World Movie Reviews

...a poignant and powerful narrative that reveals that reading writing and arithmetic are not the only subjects to learn in life.

May 11, 2003 Full Review Source: Movie Magazine International | Comment
Movie Magazine International

A stark metaphor about diasporic people wandering aimlessly through rocky, desolate terrain, buffeted by unseen forces beyond their control.

March 14, 2003 Comment
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

does paint some memorable images ..., but Makhmalbaf keeps her distance from the characters

February 9, 2003 Full Review Source: Old School Reviews | Comment

Reeboir varies between a sweet smile and an angry bark, while Said attempts to wear down possible pupils through repetition. It has no affect on the Kurds, but it wore me down.

January 31, 2003 Comment
Seattle Times

The stripped-down dramatic constructs, austere imagery and abstract characters are equal parts poetry and politics, obvious at times but evocative and heartfelt.

January 30, 2003 Full Review Source: Seattle Post-Intelligencer | Comment
Seattle Post-Intelligencer

People cinema at its finest.

January 30, 2003 Full Review Source: RTE Interactive (Dublin, Ireland) | Comment

That is essentially what's missing from Blackboards -- the sense of something bigger, some ultimate point.

January 27, 2003 Full Review Source: Combustible Celluloid | Comment
Combustible Celluloid

Like many Iranian filmmakers, Makhmalbaf prefers ambiguity to agitprop in her approach to politically contentious subject matter, but the results are still bracing and affecting.

January 20, 2003 Full Review Source: eye WEEKLY | Comment
eye WEEKLY
More Critic Reviews

Audience Reviews for Blackboards

The role of Halaleh is now pretty much my favorite role in all movies of all time. Ever. All time. *And the director is a 20-year-old female*.

June 6, 2007

With its frustratingly persistent repetition, it's easy to write Blackboards off, but beneath the slog, there's an at-least-interesting movie lurking. The film does a decent job of aligning the viewer with its protagonists, traveling teachers searching for students in the stark Iranian landscape. The titular teaching

April 10, 2011
meinink2y
Clayton Walter

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Foreign Titles

  • Schwarze Tafeln (DE)
  • Blackboards (Takhte siah) (UK)
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