Blackboards (2000)

Itinerant Kurdish teachers carrying blackboards on their backs look for students in the hills and villages of Iran near the Iraqi border during the IranIraq war Said falls in with a group of old men looking for their bombedout village he offers to guide them and takes as his wife Halaleh the clans lone woman a widow with a young son Reeboir attaches himself to a dozen preteen boys weighed down by contraband they carry across the border theyre 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