Children of Heaven

Rating: 8/10 (11 February 2007)

The Children of Heaven is a great foreign film that follows these two children through all their ups and downs and journeys. I believe that this movie does a great job of symbolizing the ideas of modernity vs. tradition and the values of Islam.
For instance, the will of God was presented through out this movie and shown in a good light. In the movie Ali and Zahra were very effective in changing their lives and having an effect on what was going on and how they were going to do things. This was also done better than the parents because they were not shown in a very leading light like the children were but more in the background and shadows. This also demonstrates the idea that the younger generation is more open and willing to change than the older generation.
An example of this effect that the children have would be when Zahra finally finds her shoes. When the two of them chase down the girl and see her family and how they live they decide that it is not worth taking the shoes back since the family seemed to be much poorer than they were.
Another effect would be when Ali went with his father to find work in the uptown city; he showed more backbone than his father did. Ali found a way to ask others is they needed any gardeners and eventually he found someone they could work for. In this effect Ali was able to get his father the job which in turn earned them quite a bit of extra money. And in a round about way this money eventually gets the two children gifts that they would enjoy.
These are just a few of the examples throughout the movie that show a lot of effect from the children that from the parents. This is a great movie and it depicts a different culture in a very interesting light.