THE CHILDREN OF HEAVEN
Reviewed by Harvey Karten, Ph.D. Miramax Films Director: Majid Majidi Writer: Majid Majidi Cast: Mohammad Amir Naji, Mir Farrokh Hashemian, Bahare Seddiqi
Some public schools in the U.S. are copying an idea started by the prep schools and now require students to wear uniforms to class. In that way, say the proponents, the youngsters will not be trying to one-up each other, implying "My dad makes more than yours." What they neglected to require was uniform footwear, and so the inevitable resulted. Kids are competing over their running shoes. Nikes are "in" one year, Adidas the next. With sneakers now running upwards of $150 a pair, it's no wonder that some pupils, especially those living in poorer neighborhoods, are using illegal means to acquire the money in order to buy status, if not from head to toe than at least from toe to ankle.
In Iran, on the other hand, the poorer kids don't even think of choosing their shoes for prestige. They're just happy they have something to wear to school at all. "The Children of Heaven," a gossamer work by the wonderful writer-director Majid Majidi, an adorable nine-year-old named Ali must not only settle for a pair of ratty old white sneakers in order to attend class at all. He actually has to share them with his younger sister, Zahra; to meet her when she finishes her morning classes and to quickly change footwear with her so that he can get to his school for his later session. Why doesn't she have her own? Unfortunately, when Ali took them to the local shoemaker for repair, he left them for just a minute or so outside the vegetable merchant's shop. When he returned, they had disappeared. Ali must spend a good portion of this story trying to replace them not only because sharing the pair's only shoes is an arduous task but because Zahra threatens to report the loss to her mom and dad, and that could lead to a beating.
From this unlikely premise, Majidi etches out a charming tale, a fable, really, that painlessly instructs us westerners in some of the customs of his Middle Eastern land while at the same time obliquely criticizing the vast gulf between Tehran's many poor and its highly privileged wealthy class. Cinematographer Parviz Malekezade's camera focuses in on one of Tehran's more ragged neighborhoods, a labyrinth of rundown streets and tattered markets which is home to nine- year-old Ali, his seven-year-old sister Zahra, their crying baby brother, their ailing mother and overworked father. The family are five months behind in their rent and regularly threatened by the landlord. The vegetable man guides Ali to the cheaper potatoes on the floor while refusing to allow another day of credit. At some point Ali's father, portrayed at first as a cranky and craggy fellow who seems uninterested in his children but then as a caring family patriarch, takes the boy "uptown" on the family's threadbare bicycle where they offer their gardening services to the rich who are protected behind high walls and fierce, barking dogs.
The narrative is simple enough, but Majidi mines the film for sights rich in symbolism and local color. A blind beggar hugs his little girl when she arrives home and buys her the best pair of shoes he can afford. The schoolgirls and women are clothed to a person in their traditional religious headdress but are conspicuously absent from services in the mosque as they are from important cultural institutions throughout the land. Teachers in the shabby elementary school do what they can with the limited supplies they can dole out, the principals lecturing the kids on the importance of cleanliness while the instructors administer written tests to shyly obedient children. The men on the faculty run the gamut from a bearded, serious fellow to a rotund coach who could easily fit into the athletic staff of an American high school.
The two youngsters are portrayed as the titled children of heaven. Yet they are not saintly or especially goody two- shoes but rather harbor envious sentiment toward those who have more than they, if only a simple pair of loafers or a clean set of sneakers.
The acting is tops all around. Happily, "The Children of Heaven" is not a tearjerker nor does it conclude on a sticky utopian note. While a Hollywood ending would have demanded that Ali replace his sister's shoes as promised, Majidi's conclusion would have likely brought a broad smile to the face of O. Henry.
Rated PG. Running Time: 88 minutes. (C) 1998 Harvey Karten
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