This is an unsentimental, brutal and a breathtakingly beautiful film. The fact that it is described as a docu-drama is a credit to the performances of the children and the directoral vision of Bahman Ghobadi. A group of orphaned Kurdish children live on the poverty line in a village on the Iran-Iraq border. Doing anything they can to make money, the children work in markets, carry tyres, and work for smugglers though are often cheated by their employers. Working in extreme conditions, they feed find out more...

In the harsh environment of the Iran/Iraq border two nomadic teachers attempt to ply their trade. Reeboir hooks up with a group of teenage smugglers while Said joins a group of old men as they make the trek back to their decimated homes in Iraq. Winner of the jury prize at Cannes 2000, this is the second feature from the director of 'The Apple' and proof, if proof were needed, that her first film was no fluke; "Blackboards" is strikingly visual and masterfully observed. find out more...

Mamo is an elderly Iraqi Kurdish musican, long exiled in Iran, who is determined to take his 10 sons and a female singer, illegal in Iran, to perform one last concert in his homeland. Having overcome the bureaucratic hassles, and despite visions of his own forthcoming death, he sets off, with entourage, in a beat-up old bus on a troubled journey toward the snow covered border mountains in search of his destination. find out more...

A willful young boy follows his equally obstinate grandmother in a journey across Iraq, determined to discover the fate of her missing son, Ahmed's father, who never returned from war. A stunning piece of work that shifts the focus from the national strife, which most post-Iraq films focus on, to a more personal and highly affecting level. find out more...

Set just prior to the Allies' second invasion of Iraq and filmed on location find out more...