Children of Heaven

“Children of heaven” is a film that belongs to the Iranian Film Industry. It was directed by Majid Majidi. It was released in the year 1997. Later the following year was nominated to the Academy Awards for best foreign film. This film basically deals with poverty in countries of the Middle East. One of these countries is Iran. The story tries to show how things so simple can become a problem for families who are extremely poor. In this case, how a brother (Ali) and sister (Zahra) have to face different obstacles when one of them loses its sneakers.

The story starts with the sights of a city that seems to be full of poverty. That’s when we meet Ali, a child of around 10 years, who seems confused and preoccupied because he lost his sister’s sneakers. Ali’s family is very poor and they don’t have enough money to buy another pair of sneakers for her sister. He knows that, so he decides not to tell anything to his sick mother or his working father. He and his sister know that they could get in so much trouble due to this reason. The only solution that they find is to share the sneakers that belong to Ali. This until they see that their father has some money to buy them new shoes.

In this journey of sharing shoes in order to go to school the siblings start to get closer to each other. This builds a really strong relationship between them. One day, while Zahra was sad watching other girl’s sneakers at school, she saw her sneakers on the feet of another girl. She decided to follow her and take her shoes back. However, she and Ali found out that the girl’s father was blind. This softened their hearts and they decided to find another solution. Ali entered a competition for the best students. He wanted to win the third place competition to receive the price for that position; a pair of new sneakers. The bad part is that he was too good and ended up winning the first place and therefore another price. This was another disillusion for both children. Apparently this disillusion was only going to be momentary because at the end the bicycle of their father can be seem with 2 new pairs of shoes for each one of them. This means that after all their effort, they could finally be happy. They would get their new shoes.

This movie is very interesting to watch. Children are very innocent and heart given. If you watch this movie it’s very probable that you could feel sad or happy at the same time. Many people have had the joy to have a happy childhood without any needs. This movie showed that not all persons have the same fortune. However, the love that exists in a family will ever be the most important thing. I think that this movie should have more screenings worldwide. It helps to the viewers to remember what’s childhood about and to value the things that we have and not.