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'Children' Is Just Heavenly
January 22, 1999
By JONATHAN FOREMAN
4 stars

One wonderful movie after another comes out of Iran despite, or perhaps because of, the restrictions placed on artistic expression by the ruling Mullahs.

Very often these films are about children - with the opportunities for subtle but powerful social comment. "Children of Heaven," an utterlydelightful, moving story about a little boy and his sister who live in one of Teheran's poorest quarters, is no exception.

"Children," directed by Majid Majidi, contains obvious echoes of Vittorio De Sica's neo-realist classic "The Bicycle Thief" and Bille August's "Pelle the Conqueror."

But despite its effective depiction of the humiliations of poverty, it is never depressing - or predictable.

Much of the plot centers on a pair of shoes - a possession that prosperous folk take for granted but the truly poor do not.

One day, little Ali (Mir Farrokh Hashemian) picks up his sister Zahra's (Bahareh Seddiqi) only pair from the cobbler but proceeds to lose them while doing some errands for their ailing mother. Zahra now has no shoes to wear to school. The children cannot tell their parents because Ali is sure that his Turkish immigrant father (Amir Naji), who pours tea at the local mosque, cannot afford to buy her new ones.

So the children work out a scheme whereby Zahra wears Ali's sneakers to her classes in the morning, then runs back to meet him so he can wear them to his school in the afternoon.

But the shoes don't really fit Zahra, and the changeover means that Ali is late for class. Then Zahra sees another girl wearing her lost shoes. She resolves to get them back until she discovers that this girl is the daughter of an even-poorer blind peddler.

A solution seems at hand when Ali's father tries to make some extra money as a gardener in the far-off rich neighborhoods of North Tehran. This and other episodes in "Children of Heaven" allow Majidi to
explore some fascinating aspects of Iranian society: from the regimentation of Zahra's school to the huge gulf between the Westernized rich and the deferential poor.

There are a few overdone moments in "Children of Heaven" and some minor technical flaws including points when the dialogue is obviously dubbed.

But it never ceases to be a real story about real people, told with skill, humor and delicacy. It's also acted with remarkable authority by both children and adult players.

"Children of Heaven" is likely to receive an Oscar nomination for best foreign-language film, an honor its creator deserves.

CHILDREN OF HEAVEN
With Mir Farrohk Hashemian and Bahareh Seddiqi. Written and directed by Majid Majidi. In Farsi, with English subtitles, Running time: 88 minutes. Unrated.