This gem of a film is a cross-cultural masterpiece that touches the heart and reveals the universality of familial love and the determination of children to make do even in the most dire circumstances. For the talented Iranian writer and director Majid Majidi, the film again affirms his reputation as one of Iran’s leading art film directors of the modern era.
On the way home from doing various errands in Teheran, nine-year-old Ali loses the newly repaired shoes of his younger sister Zahra. Since his father is overdue in paying the rent for their one-room home, the little boy doesn’t want to tell him the bad news. So he hatched a plan: he and Zahra will share a pair of his worn-out sneakers: she uses them for her morning classes, then runs to meets him so he can wear them for his afternoon classes.
All this running around puts a strain on them and adds to tensions in the family. Some of it is eased when Ali and his father travel by bike to the richer part of the city to do some gardening. There, the enterprising boy signs up for a race in which the third prize is a new pair of sneakers. While the climax is expected, what makes the ending so poignant is watching the athletic Ali struggling to let first- and second placers beat him to a photo finish.
With this tale, director Majid Majidi displays his formidable talent turning small gestures and a simple story into a great drama. Much humor and suspense is wrung from incidents that would be minuscule from anything but a child’s viewpoint. As always in good Iranian films, there are quasi-documentary shots of everyday life in Iran. In Children of Heaven, life in Teheran is documented in realistic detail, from the potatoes that are staple food for Ali’s family, to the way Zahra shows care for elderly neighbors, and the careful unravelling of a woollen garment so it can be knitted into something else. These moments add context to the main story, which is that amidst poverty, small triumphs are possible with a bit of ingenuity and unwav ering persistence.
A scene from the film
Full Movie
Children of Heaven can be streamed from Dailymotion in two parts, or Youtube in 11 parts. Dailymotion link: https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x81axpk