Jiyan Blackboards

Both Jiyan (Jano Rosebiani, 2002) and Blackboards (Samira Makhmalbaf, 2000) feature accounts of assaults on Kurdish communities. The story of a Kurdish American returning to Iranian Kurdistan, Jiyan (94 mins.) includes an account of the chemical bombing of Halabja and its devastating consequences.

Blackboards (90 mins.), by one of Iran's most controversial female directors, focuses on a group of rural Kurds (that includes two teachers) trapped in rugged terrain while under attack from Saddam Hussein's bombers.