CHILDREN OF HEAVEN

    Children of Heaven is a 1997 Iranian family drama film written and directed by Majid Majidi. Majid Majidi is a prominent Iranian film director,producer and a screenwriter who started his film career as an actor. In his film,Majidi has touched upon many themes and genres and has won numerous International Awards. The Children of heaven,The Color of Paradise, The Song of Sparrow, Muhammad :The messenger of God, Sunchildren are some of his notable films. The film Children of Heaven premiered in February 1997 at the Tehran Film Festival and was the recipient of several National awards and was nominated for the Best Foreign Language film in 1998. This film was distributed by Miramax. It deals with the story of a brother and sister and their adventure over a pair of lost shoes. In this film we can see an innocent brother and his sister who love each other.  They seldom complained about the family's financial conditions. They adjusted to their circumstances and lived happily.

   MAJID MAJIDI

     The film begins with a cobbler repairing Ali's little sister, Zara's Pink shoes .After getting them repaired, on the way back home, Ali stops and buys some potatoes . While he was preoccupied, a blind trash collector accidentally carries the repaired shoes supposing it to be garbage . Ali, thinking the shoes fell behind the crates, knocks over plates of vegetables and is chased away by the grocer. Ali returns home and tells Zara about the shoe and begs her not to tell this to their parents, and she agrees .Ali's family is poor with financial troubles. The rent of the house was not paid for five months. The land lord always argues with his mother for the rent. Besides, the grocer's bill has not been paid for a while . Ali was afraid to tell their parents about the mishap. That night Ali's father scolded him for not helping his ill mother.Ali and Zara were doing their homework, they passed a notebook amongst themselves and discussed what to do for shoes while going to school the next day. Eventually, they planned to share Ali's sneakers . Zara will wear them to school in the morning and return them to Ali at midday so that he can attend afternoon classes. Ali does well in the test and his teacher awards him a gold coloured pendent, which he inturn, gives to Zara to partially make up for the lost shoes . The arrangement between Ali and Zara was uncomfortable. Zara cannot always run fast enough and Ali gets into trouble for being late to school .The first time the principal ignored him , he gave him a warning during the second time ,the third time he told Ali to leave and return with his father . Ali's teacher notices this and persuades the principal to give him one more chance and let him into the class since Ali was the topper of his class. 

      Zara notices her missing shoes on another girl named Roya in her school. Zara follows her and later brings Ali to that girl's house ,by hiding near the girl's house they discover that that girl's father is a blind rag picker, so they decide to leave . Roya and Zara become friends. After some days Roya's father buys her new Violet shoes and she throws away Zara's old shoes. Due to the financial instability Ali's father is anxious about earning money .He borrows some gardening equipments and starts to go for work in the town of luxury homes where rich people live. Ali also accompanied his father for garden work . There is a wonderful scene where Ali and his father go in search of work on a bicycle. Their attempts to get some work go in vain. They were desperate. Finally they come across a mansion in which a six-year-old boy Alireza lives under the care of his grandfather. Ali's father worked in their garden while Ali played with Alireza. After the work the grandfather gave them surplus amount than required by their work. Ali's father was surprised and elated thinking about the grand father's generosity. On the way back home the bicycle brakes fail and the father gets injured .

      Ali participated in a 4 kilometer foot race involving many schools.The winner gets to spend two weeks in a summer camp along with other prizes.He desires for the third place because the third prize was a pair of sneakers. Ali sees this as his chance to earn a new pair of shoes for Zara.He was accidently placed first in the race . All his teachers were happy but his face seemed to be gloomy . Ali returns home and finds Zara waiting for him. He reveals to his sister his disappointment in his race.Then she is called away by their mother. As a separate scene, Ali's father is pictured riding his bicycle showing a pair of white shoes and a pair of pink shoes . As a final shot, Ali removes his sneakers and dips his bare blistered feet in a pool.

-Shraddha Pradeep