Children of Heaven (1997, 88 mins) Persian with English subtitles
Directed by: Majid Majidi
In this simple family drama from Iran, two children invent an intricate
plan to conceal the loss of a pair of shoes. Ali (Amir Farrokh Hashemian)
and his sister Zhara (Bahare Seddiqi) are living in a poor neighborhood.
Their mother is suffering from illness and their father is overworked and
underpaid. When Ali is sent out to pick up his sister's shoes, a blind
street peddler accidentally swipes them. Afraid that he will get a beating
if his parents find out, he and Zhara concoct a plan by which she will
wear Ali's sneakers to school in the morning and he will wear them to
school in the afternoon. But the plan has its flaws because Ali is late to
school everyday and his principal threatens to expel him. In a final act
of determination, Ali enters a race to win the third place prize, a new
pair of sneakers. Majidi's acclaimed film is an example of a current trend
in Iranian cinema where children are used as central characters in order
to circumvent censorship issues. CHILDREN OF HEAVEN received an Academy Award Nomination in 1998 for Best Foreign Film
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