It was directed and written by Majid Majidi. Ally, who is a 9-year-old elementary school student of poor family, loses the mended shoes of his younger sister, Jara, while he was doing an errand for his mother. Jara has only one pair of her shoes. But Ally and Jara both know they are very poor. They don’t say anything to their parents. So they share Ally’s shoes. Jara has classes in the morning and Ally in the afternoon.
So after school, Jara has to run all her might to return the shoes to her brother. Some days later Ally hears about the National Children Marathon Competition, and the third prize is a pair of sneakers. For his sister, Ally participates in the contest. Finally he wins the game and gets the first prize. But Ally and Jara are disappointed with the result because they didn’t want to get a suit, but the shoes.
The story of the film is based on a true story. And also, the two children casted as the main characters, Ally and Jara, were not originally an actor and an actress, but real members of a poor family. So their good action came from their own experience.
Let me talk about some scenes in that movie. One day, Jara found the anther girl wearing her shoes. So, Jara and her brother followed her to her house and learned that her father was a blind man and her family was more needy than theirs.
They give up the shoes. Also In the competition, Ally let two boys pass for being the third. He tried, tried and tried to be the third. How hard it was for him. It was a funny scene, but I couldn’t help weeping while watching that scene. It was a really great movie. It was so impressive, fresh, pure, and innocent.
It is not any kind of Hollywood’s or a blockbuster, and it does not play with any big-name stars. But there are no movies that deeply touch us more than this. The plot is so simple but it shows about 90 minutes with no laughter but weeping. For adults a pair of shoes is not a big matter.
There is nothing to be worried about it, however, to children it can be a huge and important thing. In the middle of this selfish world, this movie makes me think over lots of things. For a long time I won’t forget Jara’s appealing appearance and Ally’s words of promising to his sister “Just believe me, Jara.”
Song, Eun-soo Freshman, Dept. of Environmental Hor
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