The Lure of ‘Heaven’

The people who go to the movies in Iran are generally no different from the people who go to movies in America. Which means that the most money is made by the movies that blow up the most stuff.

“An exaggerated sense of life” is Iranian filmmaker Majid Majidi’s characterization for the type of fast-paced melodramas his nation’s filmgoers tend to show up for en masse. For directors like the 39-year-old Majidi who are more inclined, at the very least, to anchor their exaggerations to reality, it’s a challenge to find money and audiences.

Both challenges were met by “Children of Heaven,” the most recent of Majidi’s films to be shown in America. (The film is nominated for an Oscar for best foreign film.) It is the tale of two poor Tehran children, a brother (Mir Farrokh Hashemian) and a sister (Bahareh Siddiq), who must share the same pair of decaying sneakers in secret.

The film was a box-office hit in Iran and, according to Jamsheed Akrami, Iranian film critic and historian, probably would have made more if there hadn’t been busloads of children seeing the movie free during school days.

Finding funding for the movie wasn’t easy, said Majidi, who spoke by telephone as Akrami interpreted. “Movies like this don’t produce huge profits and, as with everywhere else, it’s hard to find private investors willing to spend money on films that have cultural or artistic significance.” Eventually, the government’s Institute for the Intellectual Development of Children, which has produced similar films in the past, came through with the financial support.

A Casting Hurdle: Amateur Actors Used

The next hurdle was casting. Majidi, who didn’t use professional actors, searched the school districts of Tehran for someone to play the part of Ali, the boy who loses his sister’s pink shoes and is compelled to share his sneakers with her.

The director saw about 35,000 boys in one month before he came across a sad-eyed student weeping in a classroom because he’d forgotten his notebook. When the boy, Mir Farrokh, was asked by Majidi about his troubles in school, he claimed he was suffering from amnesia caused by a head injury. Majidi figured the boy was fibbing (he was) and also knew for sure that he was perfect for Ali.

Zahra, the sister, was easier to cast, but Majidi said he had to work through Bahareh’s shyness in order to wear down her initial resistance.

Getting untrained child actors in front of the camera is one thing. Getting them to do what you want is another.

“But I worked with children for years,” said Majidi, whose previous films include “The Father” (1995), about a war of wills between a 14-year-old and his soldier-stepfather. “All of my projects have been about or for children, and that has given me a wealth of information.” Rather than “direct” his child actors toward specific emotions, Majidi said, he created games for them to play that would get the emotions he wanted.

To use one rather elaborate example: There is a scene early in the film in which Ali’s face is a mask of terror and apprehension over the prospect of revealing to his family that he’s lost his sister’s shoes.

“He would try to say the lines and I couldn’t see any real expression in his face of his being afraid,” said Majidi, who devised a scheme in which a crew member would walk in front of a camera, supposedly “ruining a shot.” Majidi exploded in front of the crew member, told him to leave at once.

As it happened, Majidi said, “this was an assistant of mine who had grown emotionally attached [to Mir Farrokh], and I started noticing that the boy was growing apprehensive, fearing he was going to lose a close friend and confidant. So I used that emotion in the shot where he tells his sister about the shoes and his chin is shaking in sorrow and sense of loss.” Eventually, the “dismissed” crew member returned to the set, but not until Majidi got what he wanted.

Majidi’s next film is “Color of God,” with its focus once again on a child’s point of view. It’s about the relationship between a 7-year-old boy and his father. “He’s more enthusiastic about [this film] than any he’s made so far,” Akrami said.