First Graders

Original Title: Avaliha
Type: Fiction

Cast:
Teachers, employees and students of Tohid school.

Crew:
Written and Directed by: Abbas Kiarostami
Director of Photography: Homayoun Payvar
Editing: Abbas Kiarostami
Sound: Changuiz Sayyad
Company: Institute for Intellectual Development of Children & Young Adults – Kanoon – Iran
Year: 1985
Running Time: 85 min
Film Gauge: 35mm, Colour
Original Version: Persian

Synopsis:
An Iranian elementary school in the mid-80s. Whenever a conflict breaks out, the students involved are sent to the principal, who questions them in order to bring each around to a recognition of his share of the responsibility. We thus follow the procession of students who have been caught being disruptive, fighting or calling one another names. The same ritual (questions, confessions, repentance) is repeated with another highly ritualized moment: The fifteen minutes of morning gymnastics.