Sunday, January 13, 2013
Thursday, January 10, 2013
Children of Heaven
This movie is a beautiful piece that gives insight into the slums of Iran. It really made me think. Most of the problems in the movie centered around the loss of a pair of shoes. For a lot of people, if they lost a pair of shoes, they could just buy a new pair, or wear another pair they own. However, each member of the family only owns one pair of shoes, and they won't have enough money to buy new shoes until the end of the month - and that's if they have any money left after paying the rent and buying food. The little girl has to share her brother's shoes until they can afford to buy her a new pair of her own.
The movie had a good amount of culture shock. When they were biking through the downtown of their city, I was struck by how small it was. It was sort of a smaller version of our downtown. It was also interesting how all of the cars looked exactly alike, and a man could ride his bicycle on the highway. All of the women were wearing headscarves, which wasn't surprising. What really made me think was the way that all of these hijab-wearing girls had to pledge their allegience to the leader of the country every morning - kind of like how we pledge allegience to the flag, but they were promising to honor one man, while we promise to honor our country. The prevelence of their religion was also quite surprising. All of the men attended the mosque, they did good deeds just so their gods would bless them, and of course their "modesty" with the women being covered from head to toe.
This was the first ever Iranian film to be nominated for an Academy Award for Best Language Film. It is obvious why it was nominated - it is a lovely film. Everything seems to work out all right for the family - it's not exactly a "happily ever after" film, but they're all right for now. The recurring image of peeking into the store window at the girl's shoes is touching and somewhat haunting at the same time, and it is just a wonderful ending that the father buys shoes for his two kids - one of them, a nice little pair for the girl. I love this film.
The movie had a good amount of culture shock. When they were biking through the downtown of their city, I was struck by how small it was. It was sort of a smaller version of our downtown. It was also interesting how all of the cars looked exactly alike, and a man could ride his bicycle on the highway. All of the women were wearing headscarves, which wasn't surprising. What really made me think was the way that all of these hijab-wearing girls had to pledge their allegience to the leader of the country every morning - kind of like how we pledge allegience to the flag, but they were promising to honor one man, while we promise to honor our country. The prevelence of their religion was also quite surprising. All of the men attended the mosque, they did good deeds just so their gods would bless them, and of course their "modesty" with the women being covered from head to toe.
This was the first ever Iranian film to be nominated for an Academy Award for Best Language Film. It is obvious why it was nominated - it is a lovely film. Everything seems to work out all right for the family - it's not exactly a "happily ever after" film, but they're all right for now. The recurring image of peeking into the store window at the girl's shoes is touching and somewhat haunting at the same time, and it is just a wonderful ending that the father buys shoes for his two kids - one of them, a nice little pair for the girl. I love this film.
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