Children of Heaven

Ali loses his sister Zahra's shoes on the way back from the repair shop. The family cannot afford new ones and the children hide it from their parents. The solution is to share one pair: Zahra goes to the morning school, runs home at the break, and Ali tries to make his afternoon classes in the same shoes. Then Ali hears about a children's race. The prize for third place is a pair of trainers. The strangest tension in the film comes from there: the boy is trying not to win. Majid Majidi directed. It was released in February 1997. In 1998 it became the first Iranian film nominated for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film, losing to Life Is Beautiful. Roger Ebert called it very nearly a perfect movie for children and wrote that it lacks the cynicism and smart-mouth attitudes of so much American entertainment for kids. Rotten Tomatoes sits at 83 percent and Metacritic at 77. On a 180,000 dollar budget it grossed 1.6 million worldwide, most of its American takings arriving after the Oscar nomination was announced. Who it is for: families and viewers who like small, plain stories. Who it is not for: anyone wanting dramatic events. The entire subject is one pair of shoes and nothing else happens.