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Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed movies.

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Slumdog Millionaire
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Momma's Man
84
Christmas Tale, A
84
Happy-Go-Lucky
83
Trouble the Water
83
U2 3D
82
Tell No One
82
Rachel Getting Married
82
Frozen River
82
Let the Right One In
81
Dear Zachary: A Letter to a Son About His Father
79
Stranded: I Have Come from a Plane That Crashed on the Mountains
78
I've Loved You So Long
77
Pray the Devil Back to Hell
76
Betrayal - Nerakhoon, The
75
Pool, The
73
Girl Cut in Two, A
72
I Served the King of England
70
I.O.U.S. A
69
Ashes of Time Redux
69
Fear(s) of the Dark
68
August Evening
67
Synecdoche, New York
64
Appaloosa
63
JCVD
63
Eden
63
Changeling
62
Duchess, The
59
We Are Wizards
57
Special
57
Sixty Six
56
Religulous
55
Boy in the Striped Pajamas, The
55
What Just Happened?
54
Battle in Seattle
54
Good Dick
53
RocknRolla
51
Morning Light
50
Breakfast with Scot
47
How About You
47
Choke
46
Dukes, The
43
Tru Loved
43
Gardens of the Night
41
Cthulhu
40
Igor
40
Other End of the Line, The
34
My Name Is Bruce
34
Otto; or Up with Dead People
32
Repo! The Genetic Opera
31
Hounddog
30
Guitar, The
28
Fireproof
27
Lake City
26
House of the Sleeping Beauties
26
Filth and Wisdom
xx
Dostana
xx
Nobel Son
Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed movies.
|
Blackboards
Kimstim Films
MPAA RATING: Not Rated
Starring
Said Mohamadi,
Behnaz Jafari,
Bahman Ghobadi,
Mohamad Karim Rahmati,
Rafat Moradi,
Mayas Rostami,
Saman Akbari,
and
Ahmad Bahrami
A group of male teachers crosses the mountainous paths of the remote Iranian Kurdistan region. Carrying large blackboards on their backs,
they wander from village to village in search of students. (Kimstim Films)
| GENRE(S): |
Foreign
|
| WRITTEN BY: |
Mohsen Makhmalbaf
Samira Makhmalbaf
|
| DIRECTED BY: |
Samira Makhmalbaf
|
| RELEASE DATE: |
DVD:
Video: February 17, 2004
Theatrical: December 6, 2002
|
| RUNNING TIME: |
85 minutes, Color |
| ORIGIN: |
Iran / Italy / Japan |
| LANGUAGE(S): |
Kurdish (with English subtitles) |
Original title in Iran "Takhté siah"; Jury Prize (tie), 2000 Cannes Film Festival; Grand Jury Prize, 2000 AFI Fest; Special Mention, 2001 Buenos Aires International Festival of Independent Cinema

All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...
100
Christian Science Monitor
David Sterritt
Makhmalbaf continues her rise as Iran's most promising young female filmmaker, and Iranian cinema extends its reign as one of the world's most exciting cultural phenomena.

91
Seattle Post-Intelligencer
Sean Axmaker
The stripped-down dramatic constructs, austere imagery and abstract characters are equal parts poetry and politics, obvious at times but evocative and heartfelt.

88
New York Post
V.A. Musetto
Makhmalbaf finds room for moments of humor and humanity.

88
Boston Globe
Wesley Morris
Like so much Iranian cinema, Blackboards is a work of lyrical propaganda. But its metaphors are opaque enough to avoid didacticism, and the film succeeds as an emotionally accessible, almost mystical work.

80
The New York Times
Stephen Holden
An indelible and ultimately moving vision of humanity buffeted by the elements and by international political tides.

80
TV Guide
Ken Fox
A fascinating allegory of life in Iranian Kurdistan, a remote borderland still deeply scarred by years of war with Iraq.

75
New York Daily News
Jami Bernard
Director Samira Makhmalbaf made this raw and effective parable with the recognizable help of her father, legendary director Mohsen Makhmalbaf.

75
San Francisco Chronicle
Carla Meyer
Slyly powerful.

70
The New Republic
Stanley Kauffmann
Like many other Iranian films, Blackboards counters the generally broadcast ideas about this part of the world. It is a testament of quiet endurance, of common concern, of reconciled survival.

63
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)
Rick Groen
We've got the trademark elements but not their magical bonding, and the result is a selection of scenes in search of a movie.

40
The Onion (A.V. Club)
Scott Tobias
Episodic and minimalist to a fault, Blackboards makes its ironic point about education, then makes it again a few times over for good measure, rarely expanding beyond its narrow seriocomic agenda.

20
Village Voice
J. Hoberman
Blackboards is both shrill and soporific, and because everything is repeated five or six times, it can seem tiresomely simpleminded.

10
Film Threat
Phil Hall
About as much fun as a grouchy ayatollah in a cold mosque.


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