This movie will make the viewer grateful for even the worst pair of shoes.
This Iranian film is a drama set in a poor neighborhood. Ali (Amir Farrokh Hashemian) and his sister Zhara (Bahare Seddiqi) concoct a scheme whereby she will wear a pair of sneakers in the morning and give them to her brother in the afternoon.
The arrangement is made after Ali loses Zhara’s only pair of shoes. Neither wants a beating from their father so they keep their plan secret.
[kml_flashembed movie="http://www.youtube.com/v/dqxvZeQsVzY" width="425" height="350" wmode="transparent" /]In a house where the mother is ill and the father is underpaid, something seemingly small like a pair of shoes takes on greater importance.
In one segment, Ali joins his father in search of work in wealthier neighborhoods. There are some funny moments and their relationship appears almost like the one between father and son in Vittorio de Sica’s “The Bicycle Thief.”
It is heart wrenching to watch the children and see them agonize over the sneakers, which carry with them a drama of their own.
Ali enters a footrace with the hope of winning a new pair of sneakers for his sister and the audience is on the edge of their seat waiting for the outcome.
Ultimately, this is a sad movie that examines the universal despair brought on by poverty and the acting by Hashemian and Seddiqi is well done.
“Children of Heaven,” which was nominated for an Oscar for best foreign film, is available to rent.
Murphy can be reached at: Lojano@comcast.net