Amazon.com video review:
Majid Majidi celebrates the immediacy and essence of childhood in this
delightful tale of a brother and sister who share a pair of shoes when the
boy (though no fault of his own) loses his sister's only pair. Since their
parents are too poor to afford a new pair, they keep it a secret, trading
them off every day in a mad rush, jumping gutters and navigating the
twisting lanes to their schools and back. Then the boy hatches a plan: the
third-place prize in a student footrace is a new pair of shoes, and he's
determined to take it. The plot may smack of a Disney film, but the
direction couldn't be more different. The family scenes are delicately
observed, and Majidi captures the spirit of the children perfectly: proud,
emotional, petulant, sweet, and disarmingly sincere. The film has a
Western-friendly framework without losing the naturalistic eye and lolling
rhythm that gives the best Iranian films their richness. Even as he builds
to the climactic footrace (quite unexpectedly turned into a nail-biting
contest) the film continues to reveal a wealth of discreet surprises,
culminating in a conclusion all the more resonant for its sublime delicacy.
His efforts earned the film the honor of becoming the first Iranian feature
to earn an Oscar nomination for Best Foreign Film. --Sean Axmaker
