New movie reviews, DVD reviews, interviews, and all things film.

Follow Me

• Dark Shadows ***
• Darling Companion **1/2
• God Bless America ***
• Marvel's The Avengers ***1/2
• ReGeneration ***
• Sound of My Voice ***
• The Pirates! Band of Misfits ***1/2
• The Raven ***
• Safe **1/2
• The Lucky One 1/2*
• 4:44 Last Day on Earth **1/2
• Blue Like Jazz **
• The Cabin in the Woods ***1/2
• Damsels in Distress ***1/2
• Lockout **1/2
• The Three Stooges ***
• The Turin Horse ****
• We Have a Pope **1/2
• American Reunion **
• Goon ***
• More

• Bird of Paradise
• Maniac Cop
• Miss Representation
• Mother's Day (2012)
• Murder Obsession
• Tim and Eric's Billion Dollar Movie
• Underworld Awakening
• The Vow
• Clueless
• Haywire
• Hit!
• Men in Black
• New Year's Eve
• The Red House
• More

• Peter Lord
• Abel Ferrara
• Nicholas Sparks
• Whit Stillman
• Sean Hayes
• Terence Davies
• Peter Lord Interview
• Juan Carlos Fresnadillo
• Taika Waititi
• Will Ferrell
• Interview: Ewan McGregor [SF Examiner]
• Interview: the 'Project X' stars [SF Examiner]
• Interview: Oren Moverman
• Interview: Rachel McAdams
• Interview: Ti West
• Interview: Elizabeth Banks
• 2011: The Year's Best Films
• Year's Best DVDs and Blu-Rays
• San Francisco Film Critics Circle Awards
• The Decade's Ten Best Films: 2000-2009
• My Top 100 Films [Updated]
• My Top 60 Directors [Updated]
• Christmas Movies
• Essential Halloween & Horror Movies
• Cult Movies
• More Features and Interviews

• Have Yourself a Movie Little Christmas, by Alonso Duralde
• Not Quite a Memoir: Of Films, Books, the World, by Judy Stone
• James Agee: The Library of America Collection, by James Agee
• Just Making Movies, by Ronald L. Davis
• More Books

• Home
• Reviews A-C
• Reviews D-F
• Reviews G-J
• Reviews K-M
• Reviews N-Q
• Reviews R-T
• Reviews U-Z

The online film magazine Combustible Celluloid offers new movie reviews, DVD reviews, film reviews, actor interviews, actress interviews, director interviews, film books and all things cinema related for the thoughtful and passionate. Online for ten years! Over 3000 reviews!

SEARCH MOVIES / CELEB

Children of Heaven (1998)

Rating: 3 1/2 Stars (out of 4)

In Their Shoes

By Jeffrey M. Anderson

Buy Children of Heaven on DVD

This movie from Iran, by Majid Majidi, is stunning and unforgettable in its honest, direct approach. A small boy from a poor family in Tehran loses his sister's shoes on the way home from getting them repaired. In order to escape the wrath of their father, he and his sister must share his shoes every day, racing back and forth through the streets to meet one another and switch shoes. Children of Heaven belongs in a class with Vittorio De Sica's The Bicycle Thief (1949) and Satyajit Ray's Pather Panchali (1955), with a little of Peter Yates' Breaking Away (1979) thrown in.

Starring: Amir Naji, Mir Farrokh Hashemian, Bahareh Seddiqi, Nafiseh Jafar Mohammadi, Fereshteh Sarabandi, Kamal Mir-karimi, Behzad Rafi'i
Written by: Majid Majidi
Directed by: Majid Majidi
MPAA Rating: PG for some mild language
Language: Persian/Farsi with English subtitles
Running Time: 89 minutes
Date: February 5, 1999