Bacheha-Ye aseman (Children of Heaven)

Name: Bacheha-Ye aseman/ Children of Heaven (in USA)
Release Date: 1997
Written & Directed by: Majid Majidi
Cast: Amir Farrokh Hashemian (ALI); Bahare Seddiqi (ZAHRA)


Just one word: Terrific!

This is the first time I watched an Iranian film and fell in love with it. It’s a movie about two little kids and their lost pair of shoes and it has the potential to put to shame 99% of the movies we have been able to churn out in the past few years.

The last time I saw such splendid performance from a kid was from ‘Apu’ in the ‘Apu’ trilogy by Satyajit Ray, and perhaps that’s the reason I liked it so much- To see the world from the eyes of a kid, a kid from a lower middle class/poor family and the strong emotions which bind them and the small little things which make them cry.

I remember once crying for a pen, a costly pen which mom had bought for me and I lost it on the first day in school, and how frantically I kept searching for it even after school in my classroom and then hiding it from my parents.

But the scene which I liked the most was when Ali & Zahra communicate by writing in their notebook sitting next to each other and pretending to study under the watchful eyes of their parents.

Perhaps Indian film makers should also learn that you don’t need big budgets, or copied plots from Hollywood movies or stuntmen from Australia or scores of naked women or people dancing in the Swiss Alps to make a great movie.

All you need is a heart.