Children of heaven

Sometimes, taking up this course gives me a privilege position to watch various kind of movies, from the days of our granny to modern day films to even independent films, from Hollywood to every country produces movies.

Here's another Asian film I watched over the semester but it is from Iran..



SYNOPSIS : Ali takes his little sister Zahra's shoes to the shoemaker to be repaired, but loses them on the way home. The siblings decide to keep the predicament a secret from their parents, knowing that there is no money to buy a replacement pair and fearing that they will be punished. They devise a scheme to share Ali's sneakers: Zahra will wear them to school in the morning and hand them off to Ali at midday so he can attend afternoon classes. This uncomfortable arrangement leads to one adventure after another as they attempt to hide the plan from their parents and teachers, attend to their schoolwork and errands, and acquire a new pair of shoes for Zahra. Zahra sees the shoes on a schoolmate's feet, and follows her home, but the two soon become friends.
Ali enters a high-profile children's footrace in hopes of receiving the third prize of a new pair of sneakers. He accidentally places first and wins another prize instead. The film ends with Zahra finding out that she will not get a new pair of shoe, but there is a quick shot of their father's bicycle at the end of the movie that shows what appears to be the red shoes Zahra had been focusing on earlier and another pair of white sneakers, presumably for Ali, whose old sneakers were torn from so much use. The film ends with the final shot showing blisters on Ali's feet. Some versions include an epilogue revealing that Ali eventually achieves the larger-scale success of having a racing career.
(source of synopsis : wikipedia.com)

Thru-out the movie, you can really see the hardship that this family goes thru. Financial and the life they living. Yet, despite the hardship, they try to live their life contently.

Another plot that the movie brought out is the innocence of kids. Despite everything, they still search for hope.

Again, i heard there is no professional actors in here. Some of them are as who they are. Some are first-timers. All this helps in bringing the realism to the film.

Some interesting facts..
** among the recognition that the movie received is the film was the first Iranian film to be nominated for 1997 Academy Award for Best Foreign Film, only to lose to Roberto Benigni's Life is Beautiful.
** this Iranian film actually inspired Singaporean Jack Neo in his film, Homerun.

A film worth checking if you love to explore other genre other than commercialize Hollywood movie. As the headline of the poster said..it is one of the genuine crowd pleaser-movie.