Children of Heaven

Children of Heaven is a 1997 Iranian film by Majid Majidi. It centers around a brother and sister and their adventures over a lost pair of shoes. Ali loses his sisters shoes in the beginning of the film and after telling his sister, the two decide to keep it a secret from their parents to avoid getting into trouble. The two decide to split Ali's shoes between the each other.Zahra will wear them to school in the morning and hand them off to Ali at noon so he can attend afternoon classes. Hilarious hijinks ensue as the two continue on with the secret despite how inconvenient it is.One day, Zahra sees her missing shoes on the feet of a classmate and follows her to her house. It is here that she realizes that the girls' father is blind. Soon after, the two become friends. Towards the end of the movie, Ali enters a race where 3rd place receives a pair of shoes. Thus, he tries his best to get third. However, he accidentally places 1st and gets the rand prize. He is very saddened by this. Zahra appears disappointed by this and the movie cuts to their father riding a bike...and on the back are two new pairs of sneakers.

I think the major theme of the film is perseverance. At least on Ali's part. He spends the entire movie running to class and always being late. He never stops, no matter how late he will be or is. And when he is stopped in his tracks he still continues on. I mean this literally and figuratively. Towards the end of the film, he uses his running for competition and tries his best to place 3rd. But alas, he gets 1st. His idea of victory not being in line with theirs makes him brutally sad either way.

I really liked this movie. It was one of the most fun movies I feel we had seen all year. Ali is a character we can all look up to. No matter how old we are compared to him. His sister also had admirable characteristics as well; she finds the girl who has her shoes and does noting about it. And when I say 'nothing' I mean, she didn't get angry or confrontational. Instead, they became friends. The whole movie was really good, from start to finish. It was fun and thoughtful at the same time, which most movies cannot execute nowadays.