Ìý User Rating 
Watching creative intelligence extract quality work from real people (ie non-actors) is always a pleasure. In lesser hands, non-actors on screen just wander about, looking idiotically self-conscious or hamming it up at every available opportunity. Just the way, in fact, you behaved on holiday when your embarrassment of a father wanted to take a snap. At what point, then, do non-actors, under the control of a director, become actors?
Certainly the youngsters in "Children of Heaven" respond well to the direction of Majid Majidi and give off emotions and thoughts in such an unmannered way that many proper actors could learn loads. Which also partially explains why this Iranian film was also up for an Oscar, only to be beaten to the finish by "Life Is Beautiful".
Realistic to its core, "Children of Heaven" is also set on city locations, all picked to reflect the poverty of the brother and sister, as well as the yawning chasm between rich and poor. As nine-year-old Ali feels guilty at losing his sister's shoes and arranges for her to borrow his trainers, small moments often reveal big truths.
