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The Children of HeavenRating:
Release Date: 03 September, 2002 Retail Price: $19.99 OUR Price: $17.99 You SAVE: $2.00! Cast: |
The Children of Heaven Reviews
A Profoundly Honest, Simple Story
Majid Majidi is a master craftsman. In CHILDREN OF HEAVEN he has written and directed a story so delicate and so genuinely human that it has few peers as a piece of filmmaking. He is able to see, and allow us to see, the world through the eyes of children. And as if that weren't enough, he has chosen the filial relationship between a brother and a sister that demonstrates just how profound love can be. Ali and Zahra are youngsters who maintain their family duties (living in a poverty section outside the city), serving their ill mother and overworked father and their infant sibling while continuing their education in their separate schools. The family is so poor that each member has only one pair of shoes and when Ali inadvertently loses Zahra's newly 'repaired' old shoes, he makes a pact with her that the two will share Ali's sneakers to spare the grief that the father would feel should he discover the truth - that no further shoes were affordable for Zahra. The two swallow pride, make sacrifices, and depend on each other as the one pair of old sneakers plays double duty. Each child attends a unisex school and these microcosms afford the study of the interplay of the two children as a metaphor for Iran society. Ultimately Ali finds a solution to gain a new pair of shoes for his sister by attempting to place THIRD in a long distance running race. The way that race plays out offers a somewhat surprise ending. This story is simple on the surface, but the insights into the poverty of Iran against the wealth in the major cities, the ability for a family to not only survive but make a family relationship so dear - these are the portions of magic that make this beautiful movie an experience that will please almost every viewer. The 'actors' will remain with you both as characters and as spirits long after the film is over. In Farsi with English subtitles.
Ali and Zahra's World
The Children of Heaven is the second Iranian film by Majid Majidi I've seem. Like the first one, The Color of Paradise, the storyline and the images stuck in my mind for weeks.
In The Children of Heaven, Majid Majidi focuses almost exclusively on the world of children. Adults are in the film, but they are secondary. Despite their not being the focus, the adults in Children of Heaven are not cardboard figures, however. Even with their brief dialogue, their personalities are well defined.
The Children of Heaven is the story of Ali and Zahra. They live with their parents and baby (I don't know which) brother or sister in a tradtional, working class section of an unnamed Iranian city.
The movie begins at the shoe repair shop where Ali has taken Zahra's only pair of school shoes to be stitched back together. After leaving the shop, he runs other errands and loses the Zahra's shoes on the way. Without her shoes, Zahra cannot go to school. Their father doesn't not keep ready money for such an emergency. They are poor people. Too afraid to tell their father, Ali hits on a plan to help Zahra to get to school. She will wear his old worn out sneakers to class in the morning. When she gets out of school in the afternoon, she is to come straight home and give him the sneakers so he can attend his classes. The whole movie centers around the shoes. Getting back and forth to school becomes a stressful game for Ali and Zahra.
After seeing The Children of Heaven I wondered if any producer in Hollywood has the genius to pull off such a story centering around an item as simple as a shoe. It would be a nice, radical change if one did.
Children of Heaven is excellent for people of all ages. Even though the story is filmed and set in Iran, no time is given to preaching precepts about Islam. The movie is about the adventures, genius, love, and imagination of children. Please send the West more of your excellent work Mr. Majidi!
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