Children of Heaven

Majid Majidi's Bacheha-Ye Aseman is a fascinating and deeply moving piece. It is a children movie which will be equally enjoyed by adults, and that's simply because it will take any adult back to their childhood days, back to the days when they did something wrong and were afraid to confess to their parents. The film was made with great simplicity and soul, and its impact is perfectly made through the characters of Ali and Zahra, two amazing kids who can set an example to anyone. Majidi brilliantly captures the world of these young golden-hearted creatures. They are smart, intelligent, innocent, respectful and caring. It's quite impressive to see how little kids pay respect to their seniors, what moral values they have, and their tender care for their parents' economic status and daily struggle is particularly moving. More than anything, it is their own sibling relationship which tugs at the heartstrings. Majidi's portrayal of the neighbourhood, the school where the kids study, and their own home, is most lifelike and authentic. Without a doubt, the script is the film's main winner, but the casting is one of the film's biggest strengths. Amir Farrokh Hashemian and Bahare Seddiqi are astonishing in their roles - charming, convincing, heartbreaking and totally relatable. You really feel for these kids and really want to settle their problems so that they can move on. This film is a true example of superb acting by child artists, and it shows how far they can go in their ability to explore the innocent spirit of childhood. Bacheha-Ye Aseman is a wonderful cinematic experience, which must not be missed by anyone. Just go and grab your seat, I assure it will keep you on the edge of it for one hour and a half and will be engraved in your heart long afterwards.

Wow, what can I say? Every bit of this film is so warm! It really looked at the world from a child's perspective. Every single scene is inundated with sweetness and the innocence of children. How they share one pair of shoes was amazing...and heartbreaking. How the little sister had no confidence in her brothers shoes was shown in such a warm and effective way. The ultimate despair Ali felt when he won was also so heartbreaking. Ali and his sister are both so cute and they can really act. This film can easily move one to tears. Do watch it!

Majid Majidi is a genius. He is a director and actor of great talent. This film presents a sweet story of a brother and sister, their bond and their unique solution to solving the problem of a pair of lost shoes. The child actors are adorable and utterly convincing and the production of the film is of such quality that you get lost in watching it. The story itself is humorous, at times, and inspiring. Though the premise may be simple, each scene is infused with such passion, beauty and emotion that the experience of viewing this film is anything but simple. To all who have yet to view the film, take note of the very last scene.

What a marvelous thing film can be. It can touch us and open our hearts to a culture that is both different and familiar to ours. CHILDREN OF HEAVEN, a film by Iranian filmmaker, Majid Majidi, takes us into the world of a little boy and his sister, letting us feel the love and trust that they have in each other. The boy, through no fault of his own, loses his little sister's newly repaired school shoes the day before she needs them. It becomes their secret. They try sharing a pair of his sneakers -- the girl wearing them in the morning and he in the afternoon to school. The wonderful, innocent faces of the beautiful Iranian children and their code of honor, even in poverty, provides the bases for a very uplifting tale of children trying to overcome a crisis. The direction, cinematography, music are all outstanding -- but it is the children that you will fall in love with. Well worth picking up on DVD (though there are no "Extras" to speak of).

Majid Majidi's Children of Heaven is such an extraordinary work of movie-making that it is in a realm of movies that are able to connect with anyone who remembers (or is amidst) their childhood, regardless of what country they come from. (Note: Films that have a universal appeal aren't necessarily better than films that only appeal to people from one or two countries, but making a film with a universal appeal is no easy task.) A boy named Ali (Amir Farrokh Hashemian) loses his sister Zahra's ((Bahare Seddiqi) running shoes; Zahra threatens to tell their father (Mohammad Amir Naji). Petrified at his father's temper, Ali promises his sister that he will get his sister some new shoes as soon as possible. In the meantime, the two work out a tight shoe-switching schedule. The plot is inventive and provides some decent chuckles-good writing and comic timing. Hashemian is likable and relatable though he milks the babyish whimpering to an annoying extent. Naji is able to give us a stronger feeling that we are watching a real person on screen than any of the other actors in the film. It is not until the last ten minutes of the film, however, that we are swept up in a crazy whirlwind of emotion, jolting from despair to joy to suspense (though not in that order) and the last ten minutes can make a movie great. Majidi gives us homage to The Four Hundred Blows. The ending to Majidi's movie is somewhat similar to that of Francois Truffaut's; both movies contain the feeling of extreme desperation, but Ali has a goal in his life while Antoine Doinel (Jean-Pierre Léaud) is boldly going nowhere. Truffaut's film concludes with brilliant ambiguity, leaving us wondering whether Doinel's last five minutes on screen were triumphant or pathetic; Majidi does something quite similar (less ambitiously) in a way I would not dream of revealing.