Children of Heaven Blu-ray - Amir Farrokh Hashemian

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S E A R C H D V D B e a v e r

(aka "Bacheha-Ye aseman" or "Children of Heaven" or "The Children of Heaven")

Directed by Majid Majidi
Iran 1997

A young, plucky Tehran boy loses his sister’s shoes while on an errand. Rather than tell their parents, he swears her to silence and then breaks his back running to make sure she has footwear every day: his own. Finally, he learns of a citywide foot race where third prize is a pair of shoes, and he enters, determined to win — or rather, to place third and thereby end his exhausting duty.

From this fragile-sounding story comes one of the year’s genuine crowd-pleasers: a movie both heart-warmingly innocent and rousingly exciting. Winner of the Grand Prize at the recent Montreal Film Festival, “The Children of Heaven” was also the Montreal audiences’ pick as the fest’s most popular movie.

Excerpt from the Chicago Tribune - [Michael Wilmington] located HERE

***

After a boy loses his sister's pair of shoes, he goes on a series of adventures in order to find them. When he can't, he tries a new way to "win" a new pair.

Posters

Theatrical Release: February 1st, 1997 (Fajr Film Festival)

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Review: Imprint - Region FREE - Blu-ray

Box Cover		CLICK to order from: Bonus Captures:
Distribution	Imprint #294 - Region FREE - Blu-ray
Runtime	1:27:54.936
Video	1.85:1 1080P Single-layered Blu-ray Disc Size: 18,582,704,856 bytes Feature: 18,179,389,440 bytes Video Bitrate: 23.98 Mbps Codec: MPEG-4 AVC Video
	NOTE: The Vertical axis represents the bits transferred per second. The Horizontal is the time in minutes.
Bitrate Blu-ray:
Audio	LPCM Audio Persian 2304 kbps 2.0 / 48 kHz / 2304 kbps / 24-bit
Subtitles	English, None
Features	Release Information: Studio: Imprint 1.85:1 1080P Single-layered Blu-ray Disc Size: 18,582,704,856 bytes Feature: 18,179,389,440 bytes Video Bitrate: 23.98 Mbps Codec: MPEG-4 AVC Video Edition Details: • U.S. Trailer (1:10) Blu-ray Release Date: March 8th, 2024 Transparent Blu-ray Case inside slipcase Chapters 12

Comments:

NOTE: The below Blu-ray captures were taken directly from the Blu-ray disc.

ADDITION: Imprint Blu-ray (March 2024): Imprint have transferred Majid Majidi's Children of Heaven to Blu-ray. It is cited as being a "1080p High-definition presentation". It has a low-ish file size (single-layered) and modest bitrate but is a nice bump over the 2012 MiraMax DVD that we reviewed HERE, and have compared captures below. There is an upgrade in detail, color balance and depth but it can have a tendency to look soft and too waxy at times for some tastes. There are infrequent frame specific marks. While watching I didn't suspect the 1080P as an SD-bump - maybe some digitization - but overall it does improve quite handily in video terms over the decade+ older SD transfer.

NOTE: We have added 56 more large resolution Blu-ray captures (in lossless PNG format) for DVDBeaver Patrons HERE

On their Blu-ray, Imprint use a linear PCM dual-mono track (24-bit) in the original Farsi (Persian) language. It is an extremely low-budget film (estimated at US$180,000) without any extravagant effects. Children of Heaven does have a straightforward score by Kayvan Jahanshahi (The Color of Paradise, Leila) that supports the film reasonably well - although quite modestly exported by the uncompressed. Imprint offer optional English subtitles on their Region FREE Blu-ray.

Like the Miramax DVD the Imprint Blu-ray is bare-bones with only a trailer - nothing else as supplements.

Like the recently reviewed "The Runner", directed by Amir Naderi - and many Iranian post-revolution cinema, Majid Majidi's Children of Heaven utilizes an innocent child perspective viewed through a neo-realistic lens. There are elements similar to Vittorio de Sica's 1948 The Bicycle Thief with the essential centerpiece of happiness being something western culture often takes for granted ('sneaker running shoes' replacing 'a bicycle'.) "Children of Heaven" was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film in 1998 and notable for Ebert's comment of it being a "very nearly a perfect movie for children." Taking a more critical view - "Children of Heaven" had a fairly brief stint in the conversation and it is certainly no where near as nuanced as, example, Abbas Kiarostami's 1987 Where is the Friends' Home . While still very touching for sibling love it is reflectively judged by some as an 'after-school special with a cultural twist' - showing the audience an, infrequently-seen, contemporary Tehran, poverty and family unity. A shade soapy, heavy-handed and manipulative - I still think "Children of Heaven" has greatness but, perhaps, not as much through the lens of time, as its initial critical perceptions. Fans may wish to revisit via the bare-bones, superior a/v of the Imprint Blu-ray. You still may shed a tear or two.