Director: Majid Majidi
Producers: Amir Esfandiari, Mohammad Esfandiari
Screenplay: Majid Majidi
Cinematography: Malekzedeh
U.S. Distributor: Miramax Films
In Farsi with subtitles
How often do we see something like Children of Heaven: an engaging movie about simple people living simple (yet fulfilling) lives? There are no explosions, no guns, no fight scenes, no car chases, and no eye-popping special effects. None of these things has a place in writer/director Majid Majidi's story about how a poor Iranian family copes with the financial difficulties of their day-to-day existence, and, despite the apparent obstacles, remains a happy and loving group. Sound boring? Perhaps on paper, but, on the screen, it makes for an enjoyable 90 minutes because the characters are vivid and sympathetic, and because Majidi's keen view of the human condition is universal, not parochial.
Children of Heaven opens in the poor quarter of an Iranian city. There we meet Ali (Mir Farrokh Hashemian), a 9-year old boy going home with his sister's worn, pink shoes, which he has just taken to a cobbler for repairs. On the way, he stops at a fruit and vegetable stand to buy some potatoes. He puts the shoes down, and, while he's sorting through a bin, a rag picker mistakenly takes the shoes, thinking they're part of the stand owner's refuse. When Ali arrives home empty-handed, his 7-year old sister, Zahra (Bahare Seddigi), is in tears. What will she wear to school?
Ali has a solution. She goes to school in the morning; he attends in the afternoon. They can share a pair of sneakers. Once her day is done, she can rush home and give the sneakers to him. Unfortunately, there's not enough time for the swap, and Ali arrives late to his first class. Meanwhile, on a day off, he accompanies his father (Amir Naji) to the city's wealthy section in search of work as a gardener - work that will pay enough to give the family a little extra money. And, at school, Ali discovers a possible solution to the shoe dilemma. Third place in a foot race is a pair of new sneakers (first and second prize are more lucrative, but Ali has no interest in them). All Ali has to do is beat out several hundred children and lose to only two, and his sister will be happy.
There are a number of reasons to like Children of Heaven, not the least of which is its inherent sweetness. Unlike many American movie kids, Ali and Zahara truly care for one another. Ali is deeply upset about losing the shoes, and the two siblings work together to find a solution without placing an additional financial burden upon their beleaguered parents. Seeing the film in North America also offers the fascination of looking through a window at a different culture and recognizing that it's not fundamentally different from our own. The dream, as voiced by Ali's father, is certainly the same: "We're gonna have a better life. We're gonna buy everything." And the climactic foot race contains more genuine suspense than 90% of all movie sporting events because we don't know what's going to happen.
The film's single weakness is the central conceit, which seems contrived. There's a sense of falseness in the way Ali loses his sister's shoes - a few too many coincidences occur for the viewer to miss the screenwriter's hand at work. Ironically, the awkwardness with which Majidi starts out his tale stands out only because the majority of the movie is so carefully constructed. In a big, flashy, Hollywood-style production, this kind of mistake wouldn't be noticed, but, in such a low-key picture, it calls attention to itself.
Miramax's marketing department is likening Children of Heaven to Cinema Paradiso. It's a flawed comparison, since the films have little in common. Those expecting something with the dynamic cinematic and emotional tapestry of the '80s Italian import will be disappointed. Children of Heaven is a good film, but its goals are different. Better comparisons would be to The Bicycle Thief (a better movie, but with similar themes) and The White Balloon. Expectations are important with a film like this - those anticipating something radically different (louder or more melodramatic, for example) may be displeased by Children of Heaven's uncomplicated pleasures.
Children of Heaven shares several traits with other Iranian movies I have seen (notably those by Abbas Kiarostami): a gentle, relaxed style, an almost-poetic fascination with basic images (such as fish swimming in a pool), and the use of numerous, seemingly-unimportant anecdotes to build a larger emotional picture. Children of Heaven isn't about Zahra's lost shoes, Dad's difficulty finding work, or Ali's placement in the race. It's about how those things define one family, and why the characters make worthwhile companions for 90 minutes of our time. There's certainly nothing epic about Majidi's narrative, but sometimes, as in Children of Heaven, an inconsequential and intimate story can provide a satisfying emotional payoff.
© 1999 James Berardinelli