Children of heaven
Movie | |
---|---|
German title | Children of heaven |
Original title | Bacheha-ye aseman |
Country of production | Iran |
original language | Persian |
Publishing year | 1997 |
length | 89 minutes |
Age rating | FSK without age restriction |
Rod | |
Director | Majid Majidi |
script | Majid Majidi |
production |
Amir Esfandiari Mohammad Esfandiari |
music | Keivan Jahanshahi |
camera | Parviz Malekzaade |
cut | Hassan Hassandoost |
occupation | |
|
Children of Heaven ( Persian بچههای آسمان Bacheha-Ye aseman ) is an Iranian film from the year 1997 . Majid Majidi directed and wrote the screenplay for the children's film . The main roles were played by Amir Farrokh Hashemian and Bahare Seddiqi .
action
The nine-year-old Ali, who lives in Tehran, is supposed to pick up his sister's new shoes from the shoemaker and also go shopping. When shopping, however, he accidentally leaves the new shoes and can't find them anymore when he realizes his mishap. Because he and his sister Zahra only own one pair of shoes and Ali does not want to tell his parents about the loss of the new shoes because the family is very poor, the two siblings have to share Ali's shoes.
Zahra has school in the mornings, Ali in the afternoons. Since shoes are compulsory at school, Zahra has to walk home every day so that Ali can show up for class on time. But because the way home is difficult for Zahra, who has a smaller shoe size than her brother, Ali often comes to school late and is warned several times by the director.
Ali learns that the third-place winner will receive a pair of trainers in a long-distance run for students. He wants to participate, but is not initially selected for the competition. Finally, he can convince his PE teacher of the achievements that he has acquired by running to school every day.
In the 5K run around a lake, Ali tries to run to third place, but comes first and receives a different prize. Ali and Zahra are disappointed. However, her father, who knows nothing about the competition, bought her new shoes on the same day.
backgrounds
The film was shot in Tehran . They tried to keep as secret as possible that they were making a film to capture a more realistic picture of the city. It is estimated that the cost of production was $ 180,000.
Children of Heaven premiered in February 1997 at the Fajr International Film Festival in Tehran and won several national film awards. The film opened in US cinemas on January 22, 1999, grossing a total of US $ 930,000. After the film gained notoriety through its Oscar nomination, it was also seen in several European, South American and Asian countries between 1999 and 2001. The film was released in Germany on September 9, 1999 and was seen 21,473 times. The film was released on video in Germany in March 2000 .
Critics received the film very well. He has been partially compared to Vittorio de Sica's 1948 bicycle thieves . The few negative voices complained that the film left a few questions unanswered and was too simple.
Reviews
Dirk Jaspers Filmlexikon described the film as "touching, exciting, with fantastic little actors and without a didactic finger". Children of Heaven is "an invitation to discover good children's cinema in a strange world".
The American film critic Roger Ebert said in the Chicago Sun-Times that Children of Heaven is “a really almost perfect children's film”. He wrote that the film was different from American children's films in that it lacked cynicism and was distinguished by warm-hearted purity.
Awards
The film was in 1999 as the first Iranian film for the Oscar in the category Best Foreign Language Film nomination, but the tragicomedy had to Life is Beautiful by Italian Roberto Benigni beaten.
Children of Heaven has been successful in numerous film festivals shown and won in addition to the main prize at the Fajr Film Festival awards at the World Film Festival , the Newport International Film Festival , the Warsaw Film Festival and the Singapore International Film Festival . The film was nominated for the Grand Jury Prize at the American Film Institute Festival.
Remake
In 2003, the Singaporean filmmaker Jack Neo , who had had commercial success the year before with his film Xiaohai bu ben in Hong Kong and Singapore, released a remake of Children of Heaven entitled Pao ba hai zi (跑吧 孩子), starring Shawn Lee and starring Megan Zheng . The action was moved to Singapore in the 1960s.
Web links
- Children of Heaven in the Internet Movie Database (English)
- Official Homepage (English)
- Children of Heaven atRotten Tomatoes(English)
- Film booklet of the German Federal Agency for Civic Education (PDF)