Blackboards (Takhté siah) (Directors Suite) (2000)

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General		Extras
Category	Drama	Main Menu Audio & Animation Theatrical Trailer-Blackboards Teaser Trailer-Director's Suite Trailers
Rating
Year Of Production	2000
Running Time	81:55
RSDL / Flipper	Dual Layered	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Menu
Region Coding	4	Directed By	Samira Makhmalbaf
Studio Distributor	Madman Entertainment	Starring	Said Mohamadi Behnaz Jafari Bahman Ghobadi Mohamad Karim Rahmati Rafat Moradi Mayas Rostami Saman Akbari Ahmad Bahrami Mohamad Moradi Karim Moradi Hassan Mohamadi Rasool Mohamadi
Case	Amaray-Transparent
RPI	$24.95	Music	Mohammad Reza Darvishi

Video		Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame	Unknown	Kurdish Dolby Digital 5.1 (448Kb/s) Kurdish Dolby Digital 2.0 (192Kb/s)
Widescreen Aspect Ratio	1.70:1
16x9 Enhancement
Video Format	576i (PAL)
Original Aspect Ratio	1.78:1	Miscellaneous
Jacket Pictures	No
Subtitles	English English	Smoking	Yes
		Annoying Product Placement	No
		Action In or After Credits	No

    Iranian filmmaker, Samira Makhmalbaf made her first feature film, The Apple (Sib) in 1998 at the young age of eighteen. This made her the youngest director to have a film selected to compete at the Cannes Film Festival. Just two years later, Samira's second feature received a nomination for the Palme d'Or at Cannes and won her the Grand Jury Prize - that film was, Blackboards (Takhté siah).

    Samira Makhmalbaf is the daughter of the renowned director, Mohsen Makhmalbaf, so naturally she spent much of her life immersed in the art of filmmaking. For some years now, father and daughter have collaborated in some capacity on many films. This started in a small way back in 1987 when Samira played a role in Mohsen's film, The Cyclist (Bicycleran). With Blackboards, Mohsen shared the writing credit with Samira - he was also one of the producers and the editor of the film.

    Blackboards opens on the dangerous mountain roads near the Iran and Iraq border. A group of teachers, each carrying a large blackboard on their back roam these mountains in search of students. They also use the blackboards for cover when military helicopters fly overhead. For a small donation of money or food a teacher will set their blackboard down and conduct a lesson anywhere in the harsh terrain.

    In particular, the film centres on two of these teachers and follows their path through the mountains. The first teacher is Said (Said Mohamadi). He follows a large group of Kurdish refugees who are fleeing the military guns, while trying to return to their homeland. Said finds it difficult to find any students amongst the group, but surprisingly gains a wife instead. The other teacher is Reeboir (Bahman Ghobadi). He meets up with a group of young boys who make a living from carrying contraband across the border. Reeboir finds one of the boys has a keen desire to learn how to write his own name.

    Like most films produced in Iran, Blackboards has a relatively simple narrative and is neo-realist in style. Many of the actors are non-professional, but their contributions all sustain authenticity. While the film isn't totally successful in what it sets out to achieve, Blackboards shows us a harsh and unforgiving side of life, which is vastly foreign to the majority of us.

Video

    Blackboards is presented in an aspect ratio of 1.71:1, which is 16x9 enhanced. The correct aspect ratio for the film is reported to be 1.78:1   

    Most of the film has a distinct softness, which I'd guess might be consistent with the source material. Therefore the degree of sharpness in the transfer is only moderate. Blacks were generally clean and shadow detail was acceptable.

    There are no vibrant colours on display throughout the film. The subtle and earthy colours of the mountains are well balanced on the DVD.

    There were no MPEG artefacts noticed in the transfer. Film-to-video artefacts were not a significant issue and film artefacts were negligible.

    There are two subtitles available on the disc - English in bold white and English in bold yellow.

    This is DVD 9, dual layer disc. The layer change was easily noticed at 63:31.

Video Ratings Summary

Sharpness
Shadow Detail
Colour
Grain/Pixelization
Film-To-Video Artefacts
Film Artefacts
Overall

Audio

    There are two audio tracks available on the DVD - Kurdish Dolby Digital 5.1 (448 Kb/s) and Kurdish Dolby Digital 2.0 (192 Kb/s)       

     Although I have no understanding of the Kurdish language, the dialogue appeared to be strong and clean throughout the film.

    There were no obvious issues with audio sync.

    The original music in Blackboards is credited to Mohammad Reza Darvishi. Music is barely used at all in this film, but the small contribution is very traditional in style.

    The 5.1 audio track was really insignificant. I noticed nothing in the way of direct sound placement - rather, the rear channels carried ambient sound and rare passages of music.

     Likewise, I didn't notice any activity from the subwoofer.

Audio Ratings Summary

Dialogue
Audio Sync
Clicks/Pops/Dropouts
Surround Channel Use
Subwoofer
Overall

Menu

Theatrical Trailer

    Blackboards (1:18 )

Director's Suite Trailers

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall