This is an original 27"x 38.75" poster for the 1995 film Salaam
Cinema written and directed by Mohsen Makhmalbaf and starring
Shaghayeh Djodat as herself. Plot summary: The plot is the story of
what happens when Makhmalbaf runs a newspaper ad seeking cast members
for a new film and what happens in the interviews between the director
and his applicants.
Cast and crew: Mohsen Makhmalbaf, Shaghayeh Djodat, Behzad Dorani,
Feizola Gashghai, Maryam Keyhan, M. H. Mokhtarian, Kambiz Shabankare,
Mirhadi Tayebi, Azadeh Zanganeh, Moharram Zaynalzaadeh
This is a 26.5" x 38" Iranian poster designed to promote the 2000
Samira Makhmalbaf film Blackboards [takhte-ye siah] directed by
Samira Makhmalbaf based on a story by Mohsen and Samira Makhmalbaf
with cinematography by Ebrahim Ghafori. Plot summary: Some teachers
carrying blackboards on their backs are looking for students in the
mountains of Kordestan near the Iraqi border, but they do not find
anyone. Everyone tries to hide when they hear helicopters. They
smear mud on their blackboards for camouflage and hide under them,
separating from each other. Only Said [Said Mohamadi] and Reeboir
[Bahman Ghobadi] stay together, but this does not last. Reeboir goes
up on the mountain and Said heads for the village. On the way Said
meets an old man carrying a letter from his prisoner-of-war son as
well as an old woman. On the mountain Reeboir meets some young boys
who are all carrying wrapped parcels on their backs. Reeboir talks to
them about the importance of reading and writing but these children
from Iraq on the other side of the border are carrying smuggled goods
and pay no attention to what he says. Said then encounters some old
men with a woman named Halaleh [Behnaz Jafari] and her young child.
Said tries to encourage them to learn to read and write but they pay
no attention to this; they say they are refugees looking for the
border. Said agrees to show them where the border is in exchange for
a few walnuts. Halaleh, whose husband has died, also agrees to marry
Said in exchange for his blackboard as a bride price. After they
marry, Halaleh does not pay the slightest attention to her husband and
Said's efforts to teach her to read and write are useless. Reeboir
continues to talk to the children about learning to read and write.
The children and the old men all run when they hear soldiers at the
border shooting. The children try to hide among their sheep, but some
of them are killed. Said takes the old men close to the border. They
ask Said to stay with them, but he does not agree; he divorces Halaleh
before leaving and leaves the blackboard with her.
Cast and crew: Samira Makhmalbaf, Mohsen Makhmalbaf, Said Mohamadi, Ebrahim Ghafori, Behnaz Jafari, Bahman Ghobadi, Mohamad Karim Rahmati, Rafat Moradi, Mayas Rostami, Saman Akbari, Ahmad Bahrami, Mohamad Moradi, Karim Moradi, Hassan Mohamadi, Rasool Mohamadi, Somaye Veisee
Watch Meysam's English documentary about Samira and the Making of Blackboards
