The memorable opening sequence shows a group of men each with a black chalkboard on his back. The blackboards, which should be attached to classroom walls, become the most dynamic subject in this film, moving across the Iran-Iraq border. A film about the Kurdish diaspora in the absence of a state, Blackboards is the first feature film that aroused global interest in the Iran-Iraq War from the 1980s. The blackboard symbolizes the mankind’s knowledge that will bring people out of poverty and give them rights, but the younger generation has no time to prepare for the future. While children head to the border carrying contraband, the elderly head to the border to return to their hometown. The border region captured by Samira Makhmalbaf encounters a terribly realistic unreality, gracefully giving shape to the uncertainties and mobility of people in the Kurdish diaspora. (HONG Soin)