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Children Of Heaven ***1/2
rated PG in Persian with English subtitles starring Mohammad Amir Naji, Fereshte Sarabandi, Karnal Mirkarimi written and directed by Majid Majidi
Once in a very long while, a film comes along that doesn't need an epic story in order to grasp the viewer and tell a simple story in an epic way. Majid Majidi's CHILDREN OF HEAVEN is such a film. Over the years, Iranian directors have shown skill in telling a simple but subtle BICYCLE THIEFesque story. The reason for this is that in a country like Iran, where there is no freedom of speech, you cannot degrade the country in any way, especially on film. So the filmmakers had to be able to express art with subtlety, as to not generate controversy.
CHILDREN OF HEAVEN tells the story of a small, impoverished Iranian boy who goes to the marketplace and gets his sister's shoes stolen by accident. The boy promises his sister that she will get the shoes back, as long as she doesn't tell their parents. The children must then share one pair of sneakers, to be traded back and forth between the time they go to school(she goes in the morning, while he goes in the afternoon). The children try some clever schemes in order to get the shoes back, but none of them seem to work. That is really the film's entire plot, but it moves rather swiftly and never becomes dull(in Iran, it was a huge hit among children). But during the film, if you pay close attention, you can tell that Majidi is actually crafting a brilliant study on the different wealth classes of Iran. In short, CHILDREN OF HEAVEN deserves it's Oscar nomination for Best Foreign Language Film just as much or even more than any of the other nominees, and it makes you wish that Miramax spent just as much money promoting this film as it did LIFE IS BEAUTIFUL or SHAKESPEARE IN LOVE.
review by the Teenage Movie Critic akiva@excite.com www.angelfire.com/mo/film
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