CHILDREN OF HEAVEN and Eurocentrism

Rating: Null/10 (22 December 2007)

Majid Majidi's CHILDREN OF HEAVEN (2002) exists in radical opposition to various media representations of Iran Western viewers are most familiar with. Subversive politics, oil, female repression, terrorism, and hostage-holding irrational crazy people are not displayed in the film, images that pop into the average consciousness of a Westerner (i.e. the masses) when thinking of Iran. Quite the opposite is displayed alongside refreshing realizations that Iran is not entirely what Western media organizations have etched into the collective Western social unconscious. The value of Majidi's film for such Western viewers is its assistance in the mental decolonization process that might enable viewers to experience Iran absent from damaging Eurocentric stereotypes.
CHILDREN OF HEAVEN is a beautifully simple film. Given the main characters are children, the film is set up from their perspective. Alongside Majidi's covert filming technique using hidden cameras to bring out the highest possible realism from his actors, the children are in an impoverished situation with the burden of acute familial responsibility that prematurely matures them. These children, although improvised, are not miserable as various media would suggest, but happy and contented. The narrative circles around a pair of lost shoes and the strive to attain a new pair that are sought not out of a materialistic need but a fundamental need reflectant of the culture's attitude towards possessions, an attitude different from the goals and desires of the spoiled, obscene American brat of Hollywood. Although the spoiled, obscene American brat might likewise be a stereotypical representation, within the context of discussing representations, it is significant to discern the contrast.
Ella Shohat and Robert Stam note in UNTHINKING EUROCENTRISM* that Eurocentrism (or the belief in the supremacy of European culture and values whilst demonizing non-European or non-Western cultures and values as subservient) is "endemic in present-day thought and education (and) is naturalized as 'common sense.'" From this limited perspective, it is common sense to believe that people of the "Middle East" (a Eurocentric term) are suffering, crawling through the dirt, looking for the remnants of their families that had been blown to bits in a terrorist attack as a blood-stained Koran looms in the background. One might not venture too far from a film such as THE EXORCIST (William Friedkin, 1973) where a demonic spirit spawns from an archaeological dig site in the Middle East, possesses a white American girl, then is repressed and conquered by means of a Catholic priest to understand Eurocentric representations in Western culture and view the Middle East as mystical, evil and worthy of fear.
What is scary, though, as Shohat and Stam note, these sentiments are accepted and normalized, etched into the fabric of the social unconscious. Just as the sky is blue and the grass is green, Eurocentricism elicits normalized depictions of Iran (or other countries in the Middle East) as a nation that births evil terrorists. But Ali and Zhara, the children of CHILDREN OF HEAVEN are anything but evil -- they are, rather, transcendent, "of Heaven." This is brought to fruition at the end of the film in the famous scene of the goldfish kissing Ali's feet in the circular communal pool in his village. Quite the opposite of a destroyer of peace, Ali IS peace.
This goldfish image serves as a powerful device within the narrative, but more importantly, for Western viewers, serves in the mental decolonization process, a process that must be engaged to replace negative perceptions of a culture with truer renderings. The goldfish leaves viewers in an extremely calm space, almost meditative, a malleable ending hinting that there is much more to Iranian culture versus the ugliness presented via various media -- there is even beauty, emotion, and harmony. Such intense emotion yields great enjoyment, and, in CHILDREN OF HEAVEN, great enjoyment (and liberation) is gleaned for the sake of a culture previously thought of as demonic and regressive.
While it is true Iran, like any country, has issues, it is important to remember these issues do not encompass the entirety of Iranian culture. When viewers focus only on what is bad, the beauty and value of Iran is forgotten, submerged beneath much negativity as unthinking Eurocentric beliefs are perpetuated and passed down to subsequent generations. CHILDREN OF HEAVEN reminds viewers of the unthinking thought-process Western minds so willingly accept -- the film helps humans realize there that the talking heads on their television sets might not be representative of absolute truth.
*Shohat, Ella & Stam, Robert. UNTHINKING EUROCENTRISM: MULTICULTURALISM AND THE MEDIA. London and New York: Routledge, 1994