Directed by Samira Makhmalbaf from a screenplay by her father, Mohsen, BLACKBOARDS is set in Iranian Kurdistan. A group of teachers who have survived a bombing travel from town to town seeking potential students. Their goal is simply to educate anybody who is interested.
After the chemical bombing of Halabcheh in Iraq a number of Kurd refugee teachers seek for pupils who are willing to educate around the border as they carry their blackboards like Jesus? crosses. One of them encounters a group of teenage smugglers and tries to convince them to educate as they carry their heavy backpacks full of smuggled stuff. The other teacher encounters a group of old and tired men, whom after years of migration are going to their own country to die there. But it seems that hunger and insecurity has not left and chance for the education of the generations