2011年4月24日日曜日

BlackBoards...a very different world brought into our living room by film

I got this on Amazon after seeing it featured in a list of movies about education.

It is about education...sort of, but not really. There is a man who carries a blackboard on his back and walks in the mountains looking for pupils...but he does very little teaching because most of the children he meets are not interested in learning.

Blackboards -Trailer from Fabrica on Vimeo.



Here is the director, a young female Iranian director named Samira_Makhmalbaf

It is a film that gives you a glimpse into life in the mountains of Kurdistan and the realities of being a minority group caught between Iran and Iraq with...it seems...no place to settle.

It is hard to watch. I'm not sure whether to recommend it or not. You should watch it if you want to experience a lifestyle and a culture that is very hard to related to and understand.

The fact that this movie was made is amazing in itself. How else would we learn about how the Kurds live?

I watched it to the end, but frankly, I need someone to help me understand it. From beginning to end, the movie is full of things I cannot related to or understand the rationale for. There may be good reasons for why the actors do what they do, and say what they say, but it is very hard to follow.

The director is quoted as saying

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]


So...why do those teachers carry those massive blackboards on his backs and roam the mountains looking for pupils? Why does he marry a girl along way suddenly and divorce her shortly after?

The metaphors of the film fill you with ???????

My children were watching it along with me, and they were full of questions. It was a good chance to show them that many children around the world have to work hard to live, and do not have the luxuries that kids in Japan take for granted.

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