I grew up in a Guyana where there was no TV. It was the cinema for entertainment, among other things and places. I often credit this lack of television as one reason for an overdeveloped imagination. I do love films, however, and every opportunity to run off to the cinema to look at a good film is still habit. I have seen good films over and over – and every time there is something different that catches the eyes and ears.Looking is never value free. What we look at is guided by our assumptions and expectations about what we look for. What do we see when we look at a film? I love cinemas. We see what we look for. And very often anticipation shapes our perception. As in literature, there is much from films that one can locate in faith. These are films that you can see over and over.
After a visit to my Iranian barber, I decide to look again at the film The Children of Heaven which is a moving story about two Iranian children and a pair of shoes. Here is a film that gives us a cameo of Islamic culture and a peek into a Muslim school, a Muslim family’s home, a Mosque and a wealthy neighbourhood of Tehran. It is not the usual misrepresentation we have grown so accustomed of. Viewers sense a culture that stresses honesty, respect, responsibility, fairness and trust in the Divine.
Here is a simple, straightforward and unassuming story laced with depth and photographed in and around the narrow streets of Tehran. It is the story of Ali and his sister Zhore and their struggle as to what to do when Zhore’s only pair of shoes is lost. They dare not mention it to their parents as there is no money for another pair. Ingenuity and the willingness to address the problem motivate the children into action. As they attended separate schools, the sister in the morning and brother in the afternoon, they decided that they will share Ali’s sneakers. So the children race fervently through the narrow streets in order to make the shoe exchange. While the plan worked, there were tensions like not getting to school late (as expulsion was real) or when one shoe falls off Zohre’s foot (as they are too big for her) almost losing it.
The Children of Heaven focuses on the relationship between the two siblings and their desire to help each other and their conviction that what is done must be honest and fair to all. The film ends with Ali participating in a cross-country race as he is only after the 3rd price – a new pair of sneakers which he wants to give to his sister. So much for our yearning for the top prize!Running in his tired pair of sneakers, falling down and getting up to get back into 3rd place he ends up winning the race. Disappointed, a final scene shows Ali removing his sneaker and putting his blistered feet in a pond with swimming fishes. As the fish nibble his toes (signs of hope?), viewers can see, unknown to Ali, that the father who had managed to get some garden work has just purchased two pairs for his children.
Here is a movie that focuses on the integrity of children’s emotions and in the process underscores the faith that is at work in family, school and community, on the basis of which children develop a sense of caring that even when shoes are lost and races are won, life is good because the divine is good. If you are disillusioned with the cheap politics coming out from the current Party Conferences, why not view one such film as the above?
