Children Of Heaven
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Movie Reviews of Children Of Heaven
Movie Review: This small-budget gem has the best staging of a footrace you'll ever see on film
Summary: 5 Stars
Writer/Director Majid Majidi's "Children of Heaven" is a small-budget wonder. It's a stirring depiction of brother/sister love and sacrifice amidst dire economic circumstances. Majidi coaxes brilliant performances out of young actors Amir Farrokh Hashemian and Bahare Seddiqi. Through an unfortunate sequence of events, brother and sister are forced to share a single pair of shoes. Majidi's camera faithfully tracks the effort involved in pulling off such a scheme - you can feel the mounting exhaustion as brother Ali sprints from locale to locale trying to keep both of them in footwear and prevent news of his unfortunate loss (his sister's shoes were 'lost' while he was carrying them home from the cobbler) from reaching his parents.
The crowning achievement of the movie lies in its stirring rendition of the race that Ali enters. He aims to come in third - 3rd place wins a pair of sneakers. Thing is, with all this running to and fro, Ali has become quite fit and quite the runner, shoddy footwear and all. I think you can guess what happens - he 'fails' through triumph. Here's the thing though - Majidi has staged an incredible race. This is what a real run feels like. Go watch something like Saint Ralph to see just how badly a race can be depicted on screen - it's artificial and unbelievable. The credibility factor just tanks. In Majidi's stirring staging, these runners are exerting and competing. Majidi has his camera right there. It's brilliant. The only thing on par with it is Michael Mann's classic 1979 television movie, The Jericho Mile [ NON-USA FORMAT, PAL, Reg.2 Import - Netherlands ].
Movie Review: our common humanity
Summary: 5 Stars
I am from the Philippines. Four years ago I taught English to six classes of high school sophomores and seniors in Laguna, a province three hours away from Manila. I invited my classes to watch this movie, and they did. This was some months after 9/11. A lot of the students have parents who work as cheap laborers and domestic help in the Middle East, including Iran. I thought they'd be curious to see it.
They enjoyed it tremendously. They cheered when Ali won the race, were touched by the strong emotional bond between the brother and sister, and related to the travails of the poor Iranian family. I guess they were a little surprised that oil-rich Iran, a country where a lot of Filipinos work in order to send money back home, has poor people, too. The movie was a change from the First World perspective and escapism of the Hollywood movies they were used to. Islamic and relatively wealthy Iran created a movie that connected with a Christian audience from a poor country. The movie was close to home.
Should you watch this movie? Yes. This tender and powerful movie counters the dehumanizing consequences of global conflict and world politics (usually dictated by isolated and narrow-minded men). Iran is often in news, monolithically depicted as this nuclear threat. In the face of such negative media representation, of "axis of evil" rhetorics, the inevitable Arabophobia after 9/11, it is easy to forget the humanity of the people who have no choice but to live in unpopular states, like in Iran. The film is a reminder of their humanity, our common humanity: of GOODNESS, CARING, CONCERN, GENEROSITY, LOVE.
Movie Review: Lost : One pair of shoes . . .
Summary: 5 Stars
This is another deeply affecting story about simple people by Iranian director Magid Magidi. The central character is a schoolboy, Ali, from a poor Tehran family who loses the shoes of his younger sister, and loans his own sneakers to her so that she can go to her school in the mornings, swapping with him as he races off to his own school in the afternoons. This simple premise offers a window into the lives of people who must scrape to get by, the mother recovering from an illness and the father working odd jobs. Meanwhile, the landlord wants five months' back rent and the grocer is refusing to extend credit.
The situation may seem stereotypical on the surface - and a guaranteed tearjerker - but Magidi wrings such plausible performances from his cast that it's easy to be swept up in the immediacy of the problems facing them, and we watch as the problem of the lost shoes becomes a weight on the shoulders of the young Ali that is nearly impossible to bear. An episode that takes Ali and his father looking door-to-door for gardening jobs in a wealthy neighborhood sets their own limited means in stark contrast, but Magidi's humanely gentle vision treats even the rich with some sympathy. A footrace at the end of the film leads to an ironically triumphant scene that only Ali finds cause to lament. For its simplicity, the film is emotionally complex and immensely rewarding.
Movie Review: A Child's Movie for Adults
Summary: 5 Stars
I noticed "The Children of Heaven" was a nominee for an Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film. I've used that status as a guide for finding good unknown foreign movies and have come across some enjoyable ones that way. "The Children of Heaven" is one of the better surprizes I had lately. It starts out innocently enough...and stays that way. Along the way we watch a pair of sibling elementary school children try to solve a problem on their own. We realize that their problem is real but not overwhelming but they don't. We watch as they work out temporary solutions while searching for a permanent one. Along the way, we come to understand the mind of a an adolescent and we like what we see. Eventually, the film reaches a climax and I couldn't help notice that I was standing in excitement for the last 5-10 minutes of the movie. (I even rewound the tape after the film's conclusion to double check a matter of some importance-you'll probably know what I mean once you see it). The ending leaves a lot of suggested answers to the rest of us but the kids are on their own to figure things out. The way the film shows us virtually everything through the eyes of Ali and his sister is the essence of the film's beauty.
I guess I'd better not try to oversell this movie. I really had no idea what to expect and I'm glad I saw it from that point of ignorance.
Movie Review: Truly beautiful and poignant...
Summary: 5 Stars
This is one of the stories that is deep in meaning and really affecting and touches my soul. It taught about love and humanness. It truly is one of the special movies of all time. Simple but deep in meaning. The focus is the relationship between a brother and a sister of a poor family after the brother lost the one thing precious for the sister that is her only shoe.... In all, love is all around in this movie, clearly expressed by the concerns and efforts made by each one of the family members to the other specifically between the brother and his sister. It also emphasise on virtue; about good and considerate children who understand their poor state and the struggle of their parent to make a living, and together trying to relieve the burden. They also recognise others who are even less fortunate than them. Despite struggling in poverty, they strive to live in an honest way. One of the beautiful scenes was when the father teach the daughter not to take thing that not belong to them such as a chunk of sugar even though they were in need of it.
The beauty of this story is simply the tenderness, values or moral that it brings forth; something that every soul comprehends and appreciates. This film is definitely for all that cherish a real art and a cinema of true beauty - humane, poignant and innocent in every nature.