Due to print availability issues, First Graders and Solution No. 1 will be shown on DVD. We apologize for the inconvenience.

An Iranian elementary school in the mid-1980s: whenever a conflict breaks out, the students involved are sent to the principal, who questions them in order so that each may recognize his share of the blame. We follow the procession of students who’ve been caught being disruptive, fighting or calling each other names. The same ritual (questions, confession, repentance) is repeated with some variations and intercut by Kiarostami with another highly ritualized process: the daily 15 minutes of morning gymnastics!

Screening with:
Solution No. 1/Rah-e hal 1
Abbas Kiarostami | 1978 | Iran | DVD | 11m
A youth trying to hitchhike back to his car with a new tire in tow can’t get a ride even on a heavily traveled road. Fed up, he decides to walk, rolling the tire ahead of him. His journey takes him through a countryside so lovely he arrives at his destination utterly enchanted.