Japan Synopsis
تخته سياه
Itinerant Kurdish teachers, carrying blackboards on their backs, look for students in the hills and villages of Iran, near the Iraqi border during the Iran-Iraq war. Said falls in with a group of old men looking for their bombed-out village; he offers to guide them, and takes as his wife Halaleh, the clan's lone woman, a widow with a young son. Reeboir attaches himself to a dozen pre-teen boys weighed down by contraband they carry across the border; they're 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?
Drama + History in Japan
82 Japan titles in our catalog blend the Drama and History genres. Below: the top-rated of them (excluding Blackboards itself).
Titles With Overlapping Themes
Films and series that share thematic tags with Blackboards. Number on each card indicates how many keywords overlap.
The 1999–2001 Japan Window
Blackboards holds position #108 of 205 Japan films in the 1999–2001 window, below highlighted by audience rating.
The 2000s Japan Landscape
Blackboards premiered in 2000 — a quieter year for Japan cinema with only 64 titles in our catalog. The 2000s overall landed 1020 films and series across 10 years of activity.
Position in Catalog
Released alongside 63 other Japan films in 2000.
The 1292nd Japan title from Japan we index (earliest catalogued entry: 1899).
Our Japan catalog contains 4,579 titles in total (2,908 films).
Audience Engagement
33 audience reviews — more than 53% of Japan films in our index.
Review volume (53th percentile) outruns trending popularity (6th) — a durable title with sustained audience attention.
Thematic Fingerprint
Tags on Blackboards, grouped by how common each theme is across the full Asian catalog. Rare tags are more distinctive signals.
- iranian new wave · 5
- iran-iraq war · 3
- kurd · 2
- blackboard · 1
- teacher · 26
- poverty · 24
- society · 14
- woman director · 246
Reception Benchmarks
Ranked #2,787 of 4,579 Japan films indexed here (39th percentile by TMDB audience score).
Rating is -0.2 points below the Japan average of 6.9/10.
Among Japan Drama productions specifically: #1,223 of 1,933 (top 63%).
Production Details
| Primary Country | Japan |
|---|---|
| All Production Countries | Iran, Italy, Japan |
| Original Language | Persian |
| Spoken Languages | Kurdish, Persian |
| Production Companies | Fabrica, Makhmalbaf Film House Productions, RAI |
| Runtime | 1h 25m |
| Release Date | September 1, 2000 |
| IMDb | tt0246266 |