Children of Heaven more than a movie was a poetic depiction of emotions. Like a wind which blew tenderly, clearing out all the irritations, tensions and problems of mind; refreshing hearts with a new experience and lightening life with the sparks of love, compassion and affection. Majid majidi, the internationally celebrated Iranian director crafted the movie with the colour of soul and the rhythm of heart. The movie was nominated for the Academy Awards and won awards at the Fajr Film Festival.It’s occasional to come across such a worthy movie like Children of Heaven filled with goodness and positive energy. No doubt, it created a huge effect on me. A vibration which I can never explain but you can easily experience if you watch. No special effects, no explosive sound techniques, not at all overcrowded with characters. Simply Ali and Zahara, who conveys a mountain of meanings, a pile feelings and a load of loveliness. Their intimacy, concern, true affection and togetherness itself is the first message of the movie. The two lovely kids Bahare Siddiqi (Zahara) and Amir Farrook (Ali) throughout lead the movie with an extreme simple and sweet plot of missing shoes, sharing it and craving to have a new pair.
The movie opens with young responsible Ali returning home with his sister’s old, worn shoes repaired and on the way missing it in front of the vegetable shop. Then Majidi introduces to us the innocent face of Zahara his sister, who sheds tears when she hear this and helplessly asks what she will wear to school the next day. Ali, the concerned caring brother had a solution for his little sister’s problem. Zahara wears Ali’s sneakers for her class in the morning session, rushes out as soon as it’s over to their meeting place near a small tunnel. Within seconds, they exchange foot wears and Ali runs to his afternoon session classes wearing the same sneakers.
In this tricky situation; Ali came to know about the running race in which a pair of fresh new sneakers is the third price. Ali somehow convinces the coach and gets nominated to participate in the race just for his sister. Ali runs the race and succeeds as champion, still looses the sneakers. Zahara who waited for her brother coming with shoes, was again disappointed. The movie proceeds with a lot of natural and emoting sequences. Ali and his father going for gardening and experiencing the complicated and meaningless life in the city; Zahara following the girl who has her pink shoes and later trying to forgett it seeing her blind father and lot more.
The climax of the movie itself is a magical mixture of feelings. We know that the kids are going to get new foot wears, which we were shown bought by their father; still Zaharas disappointment and Ali’s meaninglessness penetrates out hearts. The last scene, where the golden fishes touch Ali’s feet is an air of wish and success. The whole film moves on and on with a tinge of hope and optimism. The family has a belief that they are going to lead a better life and this trust is being magically transferred into the minds of the viewer too.
What I loved most is the race episode, where I unknowingly began to pray for Ali. The blending of sound plays the most effective factor in this part. Once the race began, sound track itself replaces Ali’s mind. Silence and Zahara’s words make Ali even count himself as third one for the victory. And once he was pushed off, he began to run madly for his sister. The final question was he the third is the expression of innocence and simplicity. The picture of Ali looking at the sneakers with disappointment was unforgettable.
Zahara’s expressions were simply great. Her panic while running to exchange the shoes, her inferior feeling for wearing the sneaker at school, her jealous eyes that searches all feet, her compassion for the girl and her blind father and finally the slow but sure change of her face when she see Ali with empty hands were remarkable.
After seeing the movie, felt as if there are a lot of indefinable feelings which we go through in life, the feelings which vanish away as we grow. The movie awakes us from a lot of prejudices, fury, annoyance and problems. When a crisis come, the way we look into it decides how it will end up. The way Ali and Zahara dealt with their crisis and went on with their life is a textbook of psyche for all of us. They didn’t blame each other. They didn’t want their parents to be disappointed. They didn’t want others to know it. Their innocence made them act simple and sweet.
Nowadays none of the movies have a strong theme or a good story and hence they show off with mere technical blasts and exaggeration of emotions. Different from this Majidi introduces a brilliant story and narrates it without the over interference of technicality. The background music is appropriate and also controlled where as background score portrays the busy street which is never shown a lot. Pervis Malek Zedeh’s camera and Hassan Hassandoosth’s cuts were also apt for the story. The music, editing or the cinematography didn’t protrude out with excellence. Both went along with the story and helped in the development of the movie.
Another aspect which surprised me was the cultural and social life of Iran. I had a lot of misconceptions about Iran as if there were a lot of gender differences and religious harassments. But the way the father in the movie treats his wife and cares for her; the son worships his mother and sacrifices his pleasures for her; the family treats their girl child and admires her were messages that changed my outlook about Iran and the religious community there.
To end up, I am obsessed with the movie; feel like seeing again and again. Even if I planned to simply jot down something as negative for the sake of proving that what I did is a review and not promo, I couldn’t do that. The story more than being influential is intimate, the direction more than being powerful is poignant and the two kids more than being intelligent actors are architects of affection and attachment…
A simple but striking movie which proved to me that while blending a variety of emotions of life in mind, we ultimately end up in happiness…since happiness always elevates a few steps from all other emotions!!!
