Children of Heaven

BACKGROUND:

Released in 1997, the Iranian film, ‘Children of Heaven’ is a story of two siblings from a lower class, who struggles with, and, for a pair of shoe. Directed by Majid Majidi.

Majid Majidi His work is uncluttered and elegant: the story flows in a simple, linear manner with no flashbacks or flash-forwards; no special effects to jazz things up;

And the soundtrack played a vital part in shaping the whole experience of the viewer.
It’s not just the music. It’s the strategic use of silence.

It is called the sound of silence

The cinematography and editorial pacing of Children of Heaven takes advantage of the full range of cinematic story-telling techniques,
Such as tracking shots, pans, a wide range of camera framings, camera reversals, and point-of-view shots –

FEW POINTS WORTH HIGHLIGHTING IN THE MOVIE:

1. the narrow alley in which we see the children running most of the time, projects the economic state of the community and the director’s insight to enhance the proximity of the situation and also the realistic projection of how many hardships the faced to keep the secret: running in dirty uneven lanes, with gutters, children playing, crowd moving about.
2. A director’s decision on what camera movement for what shot?
The decision is a combination of Director’s POV i.e. what he wants to communicate or what does he want the audience to focus on and the audience tendency of observing things i.e how best can he leave an impact on them.
The camera angles used in the alley where the main subjects dwell are done in a sense as if to convey the crunch for space each time and to enhance the proximity of the situation.
Contrast to that, the usage of the long shots during the scene of the uptown highways and bridges shown to convey the expanse and create the stark difference of the two parts of the city audience are exposed to. t be adhered to in order to keep their secret for another day. And no matter how fast they run, it not quite good enough.