Poetry in the thorny field

 　　In the Western film industry, there is a mysterious and legendary Coppola family. The mainstay is Francis Ford Coppola, who has filmed the "Godfather" series and "Apocalypse Now", and his father is the "Godfather" series. Carmine Coppola, who composed the music, his daughter Sofia Coppola made a Hollywood blockbuster with "Lost in Translation", and his nephew is Nicolas Cage, whose real name is Nicolas Coppola, because he was overwhelmed by family pressure. He changed his surname and won the Best Actor Award at the 68th Academy Awards for his film "Leaving Las Vegas". The Coppola family created the Hollywood myth as Italian-Americans, and became a fascinating and constantly interpreted and written legend in film history.

　　In the eastern film industry, there is also a famous family. The form and style of the films they create can just form a reference with the images of the Coppola family. They are the "Mahamalbaf House" in Iran. Compared with the strong economic strength and long history of the Coppola family, the Mahamalbaf House is more spiritually independent. Under the pressure of insufficient funds and political pressure, what they have created is a personal soul that seeks to survive in the cracks. world.

　　The main force of the Mahamarbaf House is Mussen Mahamarbaf, who is as famous as Abbas Kiarostami. He was tortured and imprisoned for defending Islamic teachings when he was young. He deeply felt that the fundamental problem of Iran lies in culture, so he devoted himself to film creation and filmed films such as "The Floating Trader", "The Marriage of the Loved One" and "Time". He is a well-known Iranian filmmaker and social activist. Mussen set up the "Mahamalbaf Film School" in 1993. Due to the obstruction of the Iranian authorities, the school had to admit family members and friends. The family has created a miracle in the history of film. Up to now, it has cultivated a photographer, a sound engineer, an art designer, three directors and a picture photographer and editor.

　　Among them, the most dazzling and most successful is Samira Mahamarbaf, known as the "Desert Rose". She is the daughter of Mussen. When she was only 17 years old, she stunned France with her debut novel "The Apple". Cannes Film Festival, and her second work "Blackboard" won the 2000 Cannes Film Festival Jury Prize, adding creative vitality and image depth to the already prestigious Iranian film.

　　In fact, there are many female directors who have made outstanding achievements in the history of film, such as Margaret Dura in France, Mira Nair in India, Jane Campion in New Zealand, and Xu Anhua in Hong Kong, all of whom portray women with delicate and profound strokes. The inner worlds are rich in sensibility. Compared with male directors, they will pay more attention to the details of life and the subtle and alluring aspects of life. However, Samira's "Blackboard" is an out-and-out national fable, a sad song about Iran's political torture and national prospects. The 20-year-old Samira is still an adolescent woman, but the temperament of the film is the perception of a mature woman, and it has a Middle Eastern poetic feel. If everyone's adolescence, they have stayed like a master. Sensitive mind, only Samira has more rational thinking and scrutiny.

　　In terms of structure, the film inherits the exquisiteness and timelessness of the previous Iranian films "Where is My Friend's Home", "The Taste of Cherry", "Little Shoes", but the protagonist is no longer an innocent and lovely child, but Two teachers carrying blackboards to find students in the war-torn Kurdish region: Said and Repo. The surreal meaning of the film is already evident in the setting of this narrative. In our concept, only the fact that students enter the school to study independently, and there is no teacher's paranoia to "beg" students to follow their own learning. But this is also a film with the most realistic style and content. The film adopts various documentary techniques, such as long shots, follow-up photography, shoulder photography and the use of simultaneous sound, all of which show Samira's mise-en-scene of extraordinary power. In addition, the light and shadow changes created by sunlight, the thick fog and the high-pitched "Koran" recitation in the film create a scene that is both real and illusory.

　　The two passages of "Sayed's Marriage" and "Ripple's Student" can be regarded as the narrative core of the whole film. The two teachers separated at a fork in the road and had different experiences. Said met Kurdish refugees who wanted to cross the border back to Iraq, while Repoer met a "mullet" who was smuggling goods on the border. ——A group of hunched back, dumb-eyed teenagers.

　　Said married the only woman in the refugee group with three children. The wedding ceremony was funny and absurd. The blackboard was used as a barrier. Here is Said's longing eyes and uneasy cautious mood, there is a woman. The indifferent expression and the hiss that led her child to pee. The old man who presided over the marriage tapped the blackboard with a cane, and after the ceremony, they became husband and wife. There is no so-called childhood sweetheart or love at first sight, let alone love and understanding? But Said immediately took up the responsibility of being a husband and stepfather, taking care of the woman and her children meticulously. Of course, he also has to exercise his rights as a husband. When the refugees stop and rest, and Said uses a blackboard to isolate him and women in a "private world", we as audiences will smile in accordance with the Hollywood way of thinking. Unexpectedly, the plot turned abruptly, and the camera moved to the other side of the blackboard, but the audience found an ironic and heart-wrenching picture: some silly women hid in the corner and nibbled food, while Sayy De actually wrote "I love you" on the blackboard with chalk, trying to express their relationship in a more civilized and deeper way, Said said, read with me: "I love you, I love you, I I love you!" But the woman was always silent. When Said led the refugees to the border, the two who were unwilling to leave the motherland divorced peacefully. The blackboard was the only witness of marriage and was given to the woman as a dowry. However, the gray humor of the "halfway couple" was in the Samira's long-term sighing under the camera, a blackboard, carrying a feeling of meeting by chance, the helplessness of falling flowers, and the deep love of Said.

　　Borrell's sense of responsibility as a teacher is stronger than Said's. He stubbornly and patiently followed the group of teenagers called "Mules". When the teenagers ran wild to avoid arrest, Borrell also ran away with the blackboard on his back; when the teenagers stopped to rest and eat , but he was hungry and lobbied tirelessly over and over again. Finally, a teenager agreed to Boreal to teach him, which was undoubtedly a huge affirmation and encouragement for Boreal. They learned how to pronounce among the steep cliffs and practiced writing on the secluded path, even if they were mules. life is also full of exhilarating hope at this time. But just when the studious boy learned to write his name on the blackboard, a sharp and short gunshot knocked down the boy, and Borrell's hard work and infinite power were also brutally slaughtered and ended here.

　　Or maybe Samira tells the story in a cross-montage, just to demonstrate the possibility of a certain kind of love and civilization. Because there is love, there will be tolerance and understanding; because there is civilization, there will be hope of progress. However, the reality of Iranian society, which is in the midst of religious strife and frequent wars, shattered the dream of love and civilization. Because of different countries and nationalities, Said and women are destined to be separated. Because of the lack of an environment for nurturing knowledge, Rui Boer's idea of ​​trying to save those teenagers with a blackboard, a symbol of civilization, has also become a fantasy.

　　Samira uses calm and objective lenses and simple and simple images to allude to the embarrassing situation of the entire Iranian nation. Lost in the middle of the road, because even if you find your way, it may not be a good start. What is more worthy of admiration is the "real hallucination" revealed in the film, which often puts us in a dual situation of reality and surrealism. This is a leakage of universal human emotions, and it is the infinite poetry born in the thorns. , and more importantly, Samira’s sincere inquiry on national fables that transcended the surface Iranian reality and ascended to the destiny of all mankind: Allah, where are you? Where is the future of the Iranians?