Children of Heaven

 

Children of Heaven, created by Majid Majidi, is a beautiful film about two young siblings, Ali and Zahra, who live in a poor town in Iran. The film begins when Ali takes his little sister's shoes to the shoemaker to get repaired and on the way home he loses them. Ali makes Zahra promise him that she won't tell their parents he lost her shoes in fear that they both will be punished. Since the each only own one pair of shoes and their family cannot afford another to buy another pair for Zahra she no longer has shoes to wear for school. Ali and Zahra decide to share Ali's sneakers. Zahra goes to school in the morning and finishes right before Ali's school starts. She has to run everyday back home to give Ali the shoes so he can wear them to school. Because of this Ali had arrived late to school a few times and had gotten in trouble, but because he is a great student his teacher had helped him get out of trouble. Because they are sharing the sneakers they try to take care of them as best as they can, otherwise they both won't have shoes. At school Zahra notices that another schoolmate is wearing her shoes. Zahra follows her home and eventually Zahra and Ali find out her family is also poor and that her father is a blind man. They decide it would be unfair to ask for the shoes back. Zahra and the girl soon become friendly. Ali and his father go out one day to a wealthier town to try and make money from gardening. On this small journey with his father it is revealed that Ali is not only great in school but has a lot of potential as well to possibly succeed in life. At Ali's school there are tryouts going on for a high-profile children's footrace that guarantees the third place winner to win a new pair of sneakers. He enters last-minute and promises Zahra he will finish in third and win the sneakers. Near the end of the race Ali struggled to place third and eventually thought back to the promises he made and motivated himself to run faster which led him to accidently finishing first. He was disappointed and sad that he had finished first and broke Zahra's promise. When he returned Zahra knew he did not fulfil the promise by the look on his face. Ali then took off his torn sneakers and rested his blistered feat in the fountain water, possibly symbolizing a future running career for Ali. Before the final shot there was a scene with Ali and Zahra's father out shopping in town and a close up of two new pairs of shoes for his children in his bicycle basket. 

The main theme of Children of Heaven was poverty. The story took place in a poor village about a poor family. The two kids each owned only one pair of shoes. When they lost one pair they couldn't afford to buy another so they had to share a single pair of sneakers. There are many other examples of poverty shown in the film. The film is suppose to show how some countries are really poor and the people have to make use of what they have. In countries like the U.S. many people would own at least 10 pair of shoes and not think twice about it. Another theme is dedication. Ali was dedicated to help his sister and get her new shoes. He joined the race and motivated himself with the promises he made to his sister and tried his best to place third.

After watching this film I felt it was a very beautiful and great film. I felt the story was so great because of how innocent it was with the two kids yet it sends a powerful message. I also loved the direction and cinematography. I felt the film presented a realistic view of what a poor town in Iran would look like. I also loved two kids in the film, they were so innocent and their performances really brought the movie to life. The scene in the film where Ali was trying to explain to the principle/teacher why he was late to school was so funny and innocent, he really portrayed what an innocent child is like. Children of Heaven is a wonderful film worth watching over and over again.