School in the Corner

Hasani Nia is a retired schoolteacher who has started a second career as a teacher of the children of the tens of thousands of illegal Afghan refugees living in the north of Iran. Running from the war or the rigid regime of the Taliban, they chose an equally uncertain life in Iran, from their perspective a free country. Generally, the children do not have an identity card or even a certificate of residence in their native country, so they cannot be registered anywhere and are therefore not entitled to education. In the small school of Hasani Nia, five children on every bench are obediently rattling off the alphabet. Discipline is one of the first words they learn the spelling of, and in groups they recite a hymn to their new homeland. But after one year, this situation comes to an end. In his short, impressionistic documentary Madreseh ghooshe haiat, director Farzad Tohidi shows how the children receive their diploma. They hope that this will be their passport to further education. (International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam)