One simple story that render a good drama

Rating: 8/10 (29 September 1999)

The story of Children of Heaven can look fool and too simple to be a good one. But it's really good!
Majid Majidi did a film about one poor family where the little son (Ali) lost his sister's shoes. As the family is very poor, Ali tries to keep it as a secret with his sister and doing this he would save his father from paying for new ones. In fact he was afraid of being beaten by his father too.

During almost one hour they show the pranks of the child. This part is very funny. Some scenes show Zarah (the sister) looking at other girls' shoes and then being shamefaced because his brother's were very large in her feet. One that is very beauty is when they are cleaning the shoes and they start to play with the bubbles. Then Ali discover that there will be a challenge where the third prize would be shoes. So, he enter in the challenge to get the third position.
As many other Iranian films it's a little bit slow and not audacious. But the best is that it show us Iran as it is and not as the USA want us to believe. Everybody know that they do a lot of things with the woman because of the religion but it's not so exaggerated as American films show. If you see 'Not without my daughter', an American film, you may think Iran is the poorest, ugliest and worst place to live in the world. But when you see Children of Heaven you only think that they live in a different culture, in different ways. Now that I saw it I only think that Iran is a country as many other. The unique difference is that woman have to hide their hair. Only this. (Extreme generalization!)
Watching Children of Heaven is a good and different experience. It's a delicate and ingenuous movie but it's touching in the same way.