Excellent!

Rating: Null/10 (3 February 2004)

I got the chance to watch this movie on a DVD for the first time 2 days ago.

Children of Heaven is a very good movie. And coming from Iran, I was impressed. The storyline may be simple, and you may think that you may not have anything to cheer about or feel angry about, believe me when I say this movie will make you feel a variety of emotions, from shocked to sad to happiness, to disappointment. I credit all that to the simple, yet extremely powerful story, the excellent direction and the magnificent charisma of the two young leads. They shone and they will draw you into the story. My most favorite scene for this movie is the marathon scene. The fact that Ali had to beg and cried to get a place in the running team was heart wrenching, and when the camera focused on Ali running, we will cheer and cheer him on when he fell back. There was total silence except for his sister's voice of blaming him for losing her shoes and as he ran, he kept seeing his little sister, carrying her schoolbag running and running to rush him his pair of shoes so that he can go to school was sad. And he ran and ran and realized he was going to get first place and I screamed, "Don't! 3rd place Ali!" and Ali ran a little slower and counted, "one, two" and he was third until one young man passed him and he was fourth and he ran harder and harder without thinking.
In the end he won 1st place and got a free trip and his coach was overjoyed. But the tired Ali was silent and he was crying before the cameras. And when he went home, he couldn't say a word and his sister knew there was no shoes and she walked away disappointed and Ali sat by the fountain, with the goldfish in the pond nibbling at his blistered feet and he felt he had let his beloved sister down. That was the ending, but we all knew it will be a happy ending when his father comes home with the new pair of shoes, for both of them. And this was the success of this movie; you felt like you were Ali or Zahra and you will feel deeply for these characters.

10/10. The best foreign language movie I have ever seen on any subject which I feel justifies the full marks.