'Children of Heaven', an inspiring tale of two children

By Tam Notosusanto

JAKARTA (JP): Life is simple for nine-year-old Ali (Mir Farrokh Hashemian) and his younger sister, Zahra (Bahare Seddiqi). For the two children, living in a poor southern part of Tehran, life consists of going to school, playing with friends, and helping their parents with their work.

But as the film Children of Heaven shows, life is not without its complications. A lost pair of shoes may not seem like a big problem to us, but for Ali and Zahra, it spells disaster.

In the tradition of Vittorio de Sica's The Bicycle Thief, where a search for a simple object becomes a matter of life and death, Children of Heaven uses a heart-wrenching storyline to present a cultural peek at contemporary Iran.

As soon as the film begins, the lives of our two young heroes are immediately in turmoil as Ali loses Zahra's shoes when he puts them down for a moment while shopping for groceries on his way home from a shoe repair shop.

He relates the bad news to his tearful sister at home. Neither one of them dare tell their father (Mohammad Amir Naji), a bitter man who scrapes just enough together to support his family, and who shares nothing with his wife and children but his frustrations every night when he comes from work.

Ali decides it is a bad move to be straightforward with his father because not only is it likely he will be spanked, but also because he knows his father can't afford to buy a new pair of shoes at the moment. The two children come up with a quick fix: Zahra will wear Ali's shoes to school in the morning, and when she comes back home Ali will take them and go to his afternoon classes.

Children of Heaven provides us with a full, uninterrupted view of the world of children. Director-screenwriter Majid Majidi has created a film that absolutely belongs to the two young protagonists and the other child characters in the story. There is minimal interference from adults, with the children's father and a strict school controller being the only grownups who leave a memorable presence. The film is mostly about the problem the children face, and how they deal with it in their own way.

The film's main strength is the way Majidi portrays the authentically childlike manner in which Ali and Zahra handle their situation. The camera captures them running about every day in order to share a pair of shoes and not missing either of their schools. We are involved in their tension and distress as we see Ali coming late from school because of the arrangement and has to elude the school controller. Meanwhile, Zahra takes us on a heartbreaking chase along the city's gutters when one of Ali's oversized shoes falls off her feet into the gutter and is carried away by the stream.

Suspense is also in store when Zahra's shoes reappear on the feet of one of her schoolmates. How she deals with this discovery only grants us the opportunity to get a wider glimpse of typical Iranian life.

Meanwhile, Ali registers for a marathon race for boys in which the third prize is a pair of shoes. The race that climaxes this film is funny yet heart-rending, and is the most thrilling race ever filmed because our hero wants to win it but attempts to avoid finishing in first or second place.

With all the depictions of hardship and strains, Children of Heaven is a winning crowd pleaser that is rich with endearing qualities. One prominent example is the tender relationship between the brother and sister, who take care of their affairs together, including communicating about their problem through writing when their parents are present.

And the film is made into something wonderful by the two young leads' performances. Both Hashemian and Seddiqi have qualities and personalities that can easily elicit empathy, and Majidi has molded them into some of the finest screen acting ever. The film itself is an inspiring package that is uniquely closed by a falsely sad ending (the actual happy ending is faintly suggested but is never fully visualized).

Although Majidi is not yet as legendary as Iranian neorealist cineasts Abbas Kiarostami, Mokhsen Makhmalbaf and Jafar Panahi, he has become an important figure since Children of Heaven became the first Iranian film to receive an Academy Award nomination for Best Foreign Language Film last year, although its way to an Oscar was eventually blocked by Life is Beautiful. Nevertheless, the film is absolutely a triumph in filmmaking, and praise to everyone who made it possible to be screened here. It can only be hoped that films like Children of Heaven will no longer be rarities here.