Sometimes I find that watching a movie a second time can enrich the experience -- sometimes that enrichment may be good, or ill. Sometimes a second viewing can make the film better, while, at other times, the film might slip a bit -- but in any case, it’s an illuminating experience.

Children of Heaven is an Iranian film that I’ve managed to witness twice. It’s a pretty good film, both the first and the second time. I think, in a sense, all that the second viewing proved that this film is not really a classic. It is merely good. But that’s still probably better than many films that you’ve seen only for the first time.

The film is mainly about two children, a brother and a sister. As the movie begins, the boy carries a pair of shoes, just repaired, from his sister. Along the way he goes to a fruit and vegetable stand to pick up some stuff for the family. He leaves the shoes close by... but apparently not close enough, for when he returns to pick them up, they’re gone.

This causes a major situation for the boy and the girl. These were her favorite pair of shoes, and now she is without them. This isn’t so good, especially since she doesn’t seem to have any other pairs of shoes. And she needs something to go to school with every day. What is a girl to do?????

Well, the two come up with a cunning plan. The boy and the girl go to school at separate times (this is Islamic-controlled Iran, after all, so the sexes are segregated), so the boy figures that his sister can wear his sneakers in the morning, while the boy can wear them in the afternoon. Sounds like a good plan, but there’s a few hitches in the scheme.

For one thing, there’s not exactly a lot of time in between her classes and his. For the first few days, the boy is late for class, and it’s only by intervention by his teacher that the kid isn’t sent home by the monitor for being late too many times (the boy is one of the teacher’s top students; you can get away with murder if you’re an A student apparently!!). After a while, the boy tries to convince the girl to go home earlier, which seems to work.

Soon, other concerns arise, most notably the fact that the sneakers are getting pretty beaten up, and, in one shot, pretty wet, when the girl runs home, and loses the sneaker in a water runoff. A man saves the sneaker, which is pretty yucky looking by this time. Clearly, it’s about time to get a new pair of sneakers for the girl. But how???

This is definitely a cute little movie. There are a lot of cute little scenes, nice little comedies or dramas within the film itself -- but the overall feeling is that there really isn’t a purpose to this at all. The storyline doesn’t really have a huge urgency, which may bore some viewers. It just seems to go from one thing to another, although many of these things are quite entertaining, and there’s one section that ‘s fabulous. This involves the boy entering a marathon, but I won’t spoil the details, or the reasons for his joining the race, for you.

While there are many cute bits in the film, this movie is also far more grim and melodramatic in a lot of ways then I realized. For one thing, the boy seems to let the waterworks go too many times for my liking. There’s nothing wrong with crying a lot in a movie... I just thought that it seemed too melodramatic at times. As well, it’s quite apparent that these people are quite poor, much poorer than the average North American of course. While this film isn’t relentlessly grim, some people are bound to feel pained at how these poor kids live in such relative squalor.

The most worthwhile quality of a film like this is that is shows kids in their natural habitat. This is a genuine children’s film, not like many movies about children made in Hollywood. In a Hollywood film, either the kids are older, or there are more adults in the picture. But this film involved kids that are quite young, ten or younger, and involves them in pretty much the entire story. Adults are merely background, supporting characters. I think it quite neat to see the children interact, and behave with some measure of complexity. some of the more cuter scenes include the one where they exchange notes back and forth as they do their homework, so the parents won’t realize that the kids are debating what to do now that the girl’s shoes are missing.

In any case, films like these certainly show us that children are people, obviously, and that they deal with issues that are very much important to them. Certainly, a kid who lost her shoes would feel that it’s a major crisis... and she and her brother’s plan is quite intriguing and clever. And yet for the most part, these kids don’t act too cute. They act like real (younger) people. I especially like the girl; she seems to have a very inquisitive, intelligent face, don’t ask me why. And while this film doesn’t match the mother-of-all-foreign film/children’s films, Ponette, Children of Heaven still manages to make us feel for these kids.

I think this second viewing showed to me that this movie, while a good film, is not a classic film. There are some weak spots, the ending is too abrupt (but I suppose it’s necessary, considering that a film of this nature needs some sort of happy ending), and it’s not as strong as director Majid Majidi’s next film, The Color of Paradise. Nevertheless, The Children of Heaven is a very nice little movie, and certainly, suitable for the entire family. That is if you’re an adventurous family that expose your children to subtitles and foreign films, but that can be good for them.


Recommended:
Yes

Viewing Format: VHS
Video Occasion: Better than Watching TV
Suitability For Children: Suitable for Children up to Age 4