Film Review: Children of Heaven
Majid Majidi's Film Enchants like De Sica's Bicycle Thieves
Ali (Amir Farrokh Hashemi) is a nine year old boy living with his family in poverty. Entrusted by his sick mother to run errands, Ali takes his sister's shoes to be mended. On his way home he loses the newly repaired shoes. Frightened to tell their parents the truth, Ali and his sister Zahra (Bahare Seddiqi) devise a plan to share one pair of shoes between them. Zahra wears them to school early morning, then runs to meet Ali who wears them to his later classes. This simple premise is the basis for a deceptively powerful film, which focuses on a humanistic story of great depth.
In the Tradition of De Sica
Children of Heaven is a captivating film. Like Vittorio De Sica's classic Italian neorealist picture Bicycle Thieves, the film portrays the effects of poverty on just one family. A proud, hard-working family who deserve better than the hand they are dealt. When young Ali's late arrival at school generates unwanted attention, not once does he explain the real reason is because he is sharing his shoes. He would rather have his teachers think he is slovenly than think his family is too poor to buy shoes.
A World in Pictures
This film is the epitome of what so many try, but all too easily fail, to adequately achieve in cinema – a story told with moving pictures. The subtitles are unnecessary for the most part, it is so clear what's going on. The acting, especially by the two child leads, is also moving and sincere. Subtle expressions and gestures help to paint a bigger picture of a family united by strong moral values.
Ali's father, poor as he is, refuses to take even a spoonful of the sugar entrusted to him by the mosque for his own tea. His mother rages at the landlord who calls to intimidate her when her husband isn't at home. Meanwhile, Ali and Zahra communicate in whispers and glances, keeping all their worries and fears to themselves.
The Benefits of Education
Children of Heaven excels in its intimate portrayal of the minutiae of life in Tehran. The contrast between the plight of the poor and the rich is brought keenly into focus when Ali and his father go into the city in search of gardening work. The palatial, gated communities are a world away from Ali's own home, and yet he is educated and studious enough to know more about how to speak to these people than his father does.
Ali works hard at school, but when he wins a prize his first thought is of his sister. He gives her his hard earned gold pen by way of an apology for losing her lovely pink shoes. Later, it is through school that Ali learns of a way to try and win a pair of trainers, which he determines to do so his sister can sell them and buy herself some pretty new shoes.
Majid Majidi – Iran's Answer to Steven Spielberg
Focusing on children is a common trait in middle eastern films, where overt political statements are unlikely to make the censors cut. But Children of Heaven does more than just use its child actors as metaphors. It achieves a level of realism through their naturalistic acting that helps to suspend disbelief. It is a warm hearted and beautiful film, well deserving of the Oscar nomination it garnered in 1999. Children of Heaven smashed box office records in Iran, and has turned Majid Majidi into Iran's best known and most admired film director the world over.
Further reading: 10 Important Middle Eastern Films
