‘I’m selected for the race…’
Watching all of the films in the hallowed IMDB #250 has been a lifelong project for me. As it nears its conclusion (this was number 212 of 250) I have begun to question the validity of the whole damn exercise. Is the The Good, The Bad and The Ugly really the tenth best film of all time? Were all those indecipherable Japanese films I watched worth the time I spent on them? It’s difficult to say. And watching Children of Heaven didn’t bring my any closer to the truth…
Ali (Amir Farrokh Hashemian) is not a greedy child. He simply wants a new pair of sneakers for his sister. Unfortunately, his extreme poverty, his mother’s illness, and his hapless father’s (played by a suitably bereft Mohammad Amir Naji) continued struggles ensure that Ali’s quest for sneakers appears to be fruitless. And that’s pretty much all she wrote. A kid wants some sneakers. He sets out on a quest to find them.
A fiendishly simple premise from writer-director Majid Majidi, but that needn’t be a hindrance. Indeed, a simple story told well if often the best kind of movie. Think Stand By Me or Groundhog Day. The problem with Children of Heaven is that it is actually too slight. While the cast do a fantastic job, particularly newcomer Hashemian who provides a performance brimming with humanity as our shoeless protagonist, there is barely enough story here to maintain a 90 minute movie. That’s not to say that I didn’t enjoy it. It’s impossible not to get swept up in Ali’s troubles and the exotic Iranian landscape adds an extra element of intrigue, but ultimately, I can’t say hand on heart that this film is the 177th best film ever made as IMDB claims it is.
I’m glad I watched Children of Heaven, and the wrenching conclusion is worth the admission fee alone, but it’s hard not to conclude that it doesn’t quite deserve the plaudits afforded to it.