Iranian director Abbas Kiarostami, who frequently makes symbolic movies involving a child or group of children in pursuit of some goal, is generally considered to be one of the foremost auteurs in contemporary world cinema. Predictably, some of his countrymen are beginning to ape his signature style. Children of Heaven, directed by Majid Majidi, is essentially Kiarostami-lite, borrowing the basic plot outline of the master's usual fare (as well as films by other Iranian directors, notably The White Balloon), but eschewing the formal rigor and probing subtext that make this film's models more than just family fare. The story is simplicity itself: Ali, the son of an impoverished family of Turkish immigrants living in modern Tehran, is sent to retrieve his younger sister's only pair of shoes from the cobbler; after the shoes are accidentally snatched by someone else, he and his sister, Zahra, devise a clever, if hectic, scheme to cover for the missing slippers, since their put-upon parents can ill afford to worry about getting new ones. It's distressingly slight but also pleasantly energetic--particularly in its rousing footrace of a finale--and only occasionally saccharine. Recommended. (M. D'Angelo)
This title is included in our article on media literacy in the classroom