Running under the name of love

Children Of Heaven was the first Iranian movie to be nominated for an Oscar (it lost out to Life Is Beautiful), so it's surprising it's taken so long reaching our screens.

Nine-year-old Ali has mislaid his sister Zahra’s shoes. Afraid to tell his impoverished parents about the loss, Ali comes up with a practical solution: Zahra can wear his trainers during her morning lessons provided she returns them to him in time for his afternoon classes.
In a house where the mother is ill and the father is underpaid, something seemingly small like a pair of shoes takes on greater importance.
In one segment, Ali joins his father in search of work in wealthier neighborhoods. There are some funny moments and their relationship appears almost like the one between father and son in Vittorio de Sica’s “The Bicycle Thief.”
It is heart wrenching to watch the children and see them agonize over the sneakers, which carry with them a drama of their own.

Things seemed to turn better,the father, a terrible, tongue-tied salesman, is rescued by Ali's making the proposals. Papa gets new respect for his son as he is hired by a nice old grandfather who pays him handsomely.  Ali plays with the grandson. ( kids are kids, with no social distinctions. )
Once the job is done, the pair leave in high spirits, the father and son are dreaming about thier happy life in the future because of so much money, mum can have a beautiful colthes, little sister will have a beautiful shoes....But sense that something bad is going to happen. It does, when the bike's brakes don't work. It is not a serious accident but financially the poor people are back to square one.


Ali still feel guilty about his mistake, he make every way to compensation his sister, and it comes.
At the boys school, the gym teacher had announced an inter-school competition of long distance running, four kilometers. The first prize is two weeks in a holiday camp, a dream for have-not students. Ali, preoccupied with his troubles and bad shoes did not sign up, but discovering that third prize is a pair of sneakers, he begs tearfully to enter the race. The teacher relents.
It is funny that Ali is the fastest one in his school without any professional training. And his teacher is also surprised about his gift of running, but he dosen't know it is not a gift, it is the life force, he has to run faster to get school since his little sister late for coming back.

On the day of the race, Ali told his sister: I will win the shoes for you. Before running, other boys wearing best clothes and shoes, doing warm-up activities with their teachers and parents guide, they all hope to be the champion except Ali. A boy whose clothes are old and shoes are worn out, he only want to be a third one to get the shoes.
Unluckily to Ali, he won the race, he get the holiday camps but the shoes, he is confused about his work, everyone is happy and taking pictures with him one by one, but he cried sad in front of the cinema because he wo the race other than the third one. At that moment, I was moved deep.
Clearly influenced by Italian neo-realists such as Bicycle Thieves director Vittorio De Sica, helmer Majid Majidi uses real locations and non-professional actors to fashion an engaging portrait of youthful determination and resilience. And in documenting the rituals of everyday life in the capital, the film-maker doesn't shirk from depicting the material gulf between the social classes.
The film impressed me most was the ending, Ali running and running, not for himself, but to realise his little sister's hope, to reduse his family's burden. running, boy, under the name of love!