Children of Heaven

Children of Heaven (1997) is an Iranian family drama you can watch online on iFILM. Director Majid Majidi shot it in Tehran with non-professional child actors — Ali, a boy from a poor household, loses his younger sister Zohre's only pair of shoes and keeps it secret from their parents.

The workaround is unglamorous: they share one pair. Zohre races home from school, passes the shoes to Ali, and he sprints to class barely on time. Day after day. A city marathon for schoolchildren becomes his one real shot — third-place prize is a new pair of sneakers.

Made on a small budget, the film landed an Academy Award nomination for Best Foreign Language Film and introduced Iranian cinema to audiences far beyond the country's borders. Stream Children of Heaven (1997) on iFILM.