Sun Children (Khorshid) - Hijos del sol

Directed by Majid Majidi

Starring: Ali Nassirian, Javad Ezati, Tannaz Tabatabaei, Roohollah Zamani, Mohammad Mahdi Mousavifar, Shamila Shirzad, Abolfazl Shirzad, Mani Ghafouri, Safar Mohammadi, Ali Ghabeshi, Babak Lotfi Khajepasha

Country: Iran

Year 2020

Author review: Roberto Matteucci

Click Here for Italian Version

"Visitors are crazier than patients."

The website www.numbeo.com analyses and measures the quality of life in cities around the world, including the level of crime. Tehran has a moderate general index of delinquency. All analytical indexes express this judgment except for four, with a high rating. They are car stolen, corruption and bribery, increasing in the past three years, drugs. It would appear to be a non-dramatic situation. Yet, the recent Iranian filmography represents a conflicting truth.

The large drug use was narrated without commiseration in the film Metri Shesh Va Nim - Just 6.5 by director Saeed Roustayi, presented in Venice in 2019.

This year in Venice, another Iranian film, The Wasteland - Dashte khamoush, directed by Ahmad Bahrami with style, revealed the terrible existence of rural workers in a brick factory.

Tehran has another difficult and delicate social issue: the street children. A sad phenomenon, with human repercussions. Of course, it is a global facet, even developed countries suffer from this humanitarian disorder.

In Iran, this emergency has serious reasons. There is an economic problem, aggravated by a long embargo. There is a considerable military budget, for the desire to be a nuclear power to threaten neighbours. Then, there are familiar explanations. The fundament of the family is in crisis and, as always, children pay the highest price. The loss of family values is not compensated by the public and state institutions, for example, the school.

Sociological investigations confirm the thesis:

“The state of affairs in Iran according to Haddad and Moghadam (2011) is largely responsible for the various social issues the country is presently facing. For instance, one of the emerging social phenomena is the alarming increase in the number of unrestrained children that wander around the streets and public places in major cities (Vameghi, 2006). Rahbari (2016) observed that children from the lower class families living in cities such as Tehran, Shiraz, Isfahan, and Kerman increasingly drop out of school or stop attending school and are compelled by their parents and guardians to work because they cannot provide for their basic needs. Furthermore, some of the children are abandoned or left alone to look after themselves, while others run away from home to escape from the horrendous conditions (Zand and Rahim, 2011).”  (1)

The main number of street children arrives from immigration, both from poor rural areas, entire families, without aid, come to the capital. The same is for the many refugees from neighbouring Afghanistan:

“This finding, therefore, invalidates the result reported by Moradi et al. (2015) where they found that 73.7% of the street children in Tehran were sons and daughters of migrants from Afghanistan and other neighboring countries, while 26.3% are from Iranian family. Moradi et al. Only considered a few samples in their study (<500 street children in Tehran) to arrive at this conclusion. This position is, therefore, invalid; as the findings of this study clearly revealed that 83% of street children surveyed were Iranians, while only 17% were children of migrants from Afghanistan.” (2)

The consequences are deleterious, especially for children. They succumb to disease, sexual lure, drugs, violence. Then, there is the damage to the community, they will be future criminals.

The Iranian director Majid Majidi describes the adventures of some street children in the film Khorshid - Sun Children presented at the 77th Venice Film Festival.

Ali is a twelve-year-old boy. His father died, and his mother is in a psychiatric hospital. He lives on the street, does not go to school, and shares his adventures with three friends: Reza, Mamad, and the Afghan refugee, Abolfazl. Together, they fight every day in a complicated and dangerous reality. They commit small infractions, such as stealing tires from cars in parking. It is the beginning of the plot. The children are busy removing wheels. The theft is unsuccessful, they are discovered. They have to run away quickly, friends take care of each other.

Their activity is noticed by the local Mafia boss, who induces Ali to collaborate to find a treasure. Ali accepts, fascinated by the charm of discovering a "treasure". Under the cemetery there is a lot of hidden gold. It is necessary a tunnel from the nearby school, the Sun School. Their duty is to enrol and dig an underpass.

Not an easy task. First, admission is very difficult. They have to persuade a recalcitrant headmaster. Ali and his friends will succeed with screams and arguments.

The Sun School is not run from government. It is run by a district NGO thanks to donations and charities, which are rather scarce. The Sun School students are rejected, marginalized, desperate, poor, dirty, gathered in the street. They are smart but no one taught them the virtues of studying.

Ali is in a problematic class. They sit at three per desk, their concentration is low, they are undisciplined. The headmaster and his vice professor Rafie manage the institute with boldness.

The social element is the predominant one for Majid Majidi:

“The card in the beginning of my film says that, according to the statistics of world children rights organizations, such as UNICEF and ILO, there are 250 000 000 across the globe out of which 152 000 000 child labourers in dangerous conditions. Even though it has been decreasing constantly, thanks to world institutions and numerous associations in 190 countries, it is still a very shocking number. We should see the whole world as a family and these kids as members of this family, our family. If any of these kids are misled, or get involved in criminal gangs, drug dealing or theft, all of the family, our world community, suffers. I’m deeply committed to children rights. Children should not be deprived from their childhood and miss their development. Children deserve to be treated with more protection, dignity and justice and I hope my film can contribute to that.” (3)

The total of children, who live in pitiful conditions without a home, is enormous. A disproportionate number in the world. The director speaks to two hundred and fifty million. However, on the internet, the statistics of humanitarian organizations are discordant, mostly in the ever-increasing trend. NGOs usually steer statistics unscrupulously. The streets of Tehran are well-known by the director. He narrates the life of the street children with passion and affection.

Indirectly, the author even suggests the only way to defend the abandoned children, the school:

“The idea of this film came from the school in Tehran established by a young NGO. I was inspired by it and I believe this initiative should become wider and adopted by all countries. My hope is that this movie will help to create awareness and trigger initiatives.” (4)

With irregular or destroyed families, the school should supply an energetic educational function. To succeed, the education system should be neither public nor private but run by non-profit organizations. Just them could manage schools with intense social purposes.

Almost all of Tehran's street kids do not attend school, so they have a single example of life, from which they learn easily: the life of crime:

“Moreover, 96% of these children had not or never attended any formal or informal school, while only 4% had attended school (at a basic level) but dropped out due to financial challenges of their parents. Furthermore, 97% of those who had attended basic schools were between the ages of 11 and 17 years old and 3% were between the ages of 4 and 10 years old. These indicate that the majority of the street children in Tehran do not attend formal school or informal vocational training.” (5)

The other theme is the father figure. The fathers are missed by the story, so they are important:

“As the young boys suffer from the lack of responsible fathers, the teacher at the Sun School, Mr. Rafie (Javad Ezati) becomes the role model the children are missing in their lives. “Well, the importance of the presence of a father or a father figure is undeniable,” says Majid, “and unfortunately in these families, the father is often absent; either in prison or dead because of drug use. Considering the fact that in oriental families, especially in this strata of society, it is the man of the house that financially supports the household, the absence of the father produces a large void ...” (6)

Their absence is explained by the four boys during enrolment. To Rafie's question about what work their fathers did, the answer is disheartening:

“Father's occupation?

“He's gone.”

“My father is in prison.”

“He's dead.”

“Mine's gone too.”

For the boys, Vice Principal Rafie is the ideal father. Because he is a determined, strong-willed, inflexible, generous man. His prerogative is strength in the sense of courage and firmness in challenging immense obstacles. Rafie is a positive model for students.

He is not a classical educator. The pedagogy is approximate, both to adapt to the standard of the students, and because he has other projects, that of being an example. 

In one scene, Ali shows him to hit with the head.

Mise-en-scene of a normal office, with large windows, flowers, and paintings on the walls, the background often faded. The only characters are Ali and Raifi.

Camera static, shallow-space, angle eye-level shot.

Mid-shot. Raifi is on his back just glimpsed. The focus is on Ali and his sly gaze: “Raise your hand” the boy says to the professor.

Cut. Mid-shot. Ali and Raifi are facing each other. They directly stare at each other, their bodies frame the scenery of the window. Raifi slowly obeys and Ali "Can I take it?"

Cut. Mid-shot. Raifi is back again and Ali is in the middle. He raises his hand.

Cut. Mid-shot. The scene is reversed. Raifi is in the centre and Ali, from behind, lateral. Raifi looks at the boy's palm with focus. Ali "Imagine this is a head and this is a nose" while his finger touches Raifi's palm "Which part? The part under your hair."

Cut. Mid-shot. Back to the previous scene. Ali moves his head in slow motion towards the professor's hand, miming a header: "You hit here".

Then, the boy makes the same gesture but this time faster.

The professor is stunned, amazed by Ali's skill. He asks him for clarification: “Like this, you'll hurt your nose”.

The roles are inverted. Ali's answer has a teaching approach: "No, you have to practice."

Ali's lesson will later be useful to Raifi.

The camera moves rapidly, both in pursuit of Ali and in the school. The director is very careful with the construction of the tunnel, he creates tension. Children must bear both the unhealthy efforts of the excavation and human interference, such as that of the janitor. The example is in the fear when the ball falls inside. The claustrophobic ending is distressing. The darkness turns into a glimmer of light, up to the crack in the wall. It is the moment of the purification of the school and of the students; it is their baptism.

The actor Roohollah Zamani, Ali, won the Marcello Mastroianni award for the Best Actor or Actress at the Venice Film Festival. 

Roohollah Zamani is a professional. He quotes the unhappy children of Italian neorealism, like the Italian post-war children of Sciuscià or the scared son of Ladri di biciclette. The merit of Roohollah Zamani depends on the skill of the director, who explains the method followed by the children in their first film:

“In Iran, according to the official statistics there are 4 million Afghan immigrants but unofficially the number should be around 7 million. Unfortunately, these immigrants are financially from the lower stratum of society and they are mostly illegal immigrants. For both of these reasons, they have to do odd jobs and work illegally. As well, because of this situation, their children usually don’t have any proper identity cards and can’t be enrolled in regular schools even if they could afford not to work. It should be noted that an important percentage of working children in Iran are from this immigrant community.” (8)

Ali is a mature kid. His hope is in his mother's healing. His illusion is to have a family again. Ali is just a child, but he feels incredibly responsible for defending his family. However, his mom is deeply ill. Ali would like to secure proper care for her, take her home. This is Ali's treasure, returning to have a family. For this reason, he courageously goes to an underground hole working like a miner, for his treasure: his mother. While Ali is sweaty, tired and angry in the tunnel, his classmates having fun with music and dancing. Majid Majidi depicts exactly his psychology:

“This boy like others in his situation, is faced with the difficulties of life at a very young age,” says Majidi. “He has to replace the absent father and take responsibility for the whole family. That is the reason why he has to grow up before his time. These kids are usually very responsible for their family and very kind to their younger brother or sister. It can be heartbreaking to realize how mature they have become at such a young age, they literally replace the absent father and play his role.” (9)

Ali, and his friends, remain children. They play, they dive into a fountain, joyful with an open aerial shot. He would like to give back his childhood.

Children's acting demands stage accuracy. So, the director films numerous closeups with a multitude of strangeexpressions. The camera is near Ali and his friends even when they are inside the dark passage. The hole is frightening, dark, resistant to the strokes of children. The close-up frames Ali, with his painful facial grimaces when the wall does not break.

Students reveal their treasure, the school. Many students assault the Sun School building, not to escape but to enter. It is a majestic scene depicts with pathos. The school is closed. The landlord forbids entry, he wants back rent arrears. The tireless headmaster tries to convince them to wait but fails. Like the gladiator, Maximum unleashes his legionaries, the headmaster shouts “kids, let's climb the wall” and the boys, understandably all males, throw dozens of backpacks over the fence before climbing and penetrating inside. It is a magnifying sequence. The kids jump into the courtyard, framed in their athletic effort, with their crumpled and filthy shirts. The descent of the boys is editing frantically, as they were hundreds, with a close-up on their sneakers or flip-flops. The excitement of the students during the invasion is filmed, with an aerial shot. They run across the courtyard to the entrance. It supports the author's philosophical choice: school can rescue children. And the kids listen to him.

Similarly, but with a different aim, is the setting in the subway. The boys jump the access, chased by the police. Little Zahra, in spite of her energy, is about to be grabbed by a policeman. Ali sees her in trouble, runs rapidly to trip the guard. Zahra is safe. The subway is one of the safest places for street children:

“In Tehran (focus of this study), children are found on the roadside and public places such as markets, subways, and bus stations. Some engage in selling petty items while many begs for money and food.”  (10)

The camera moves rapidly, both in pursuit of Ali and in the school. The director is very careful with the construction of the tunnel, he creates tension. Children must bear both the unhealthy efforts of the excavation and human interference, such as that of the janitor. The example is in the fear when the ball falls inside. The claustrophobic ending is distressing. The darkness turns into a glimmer of light, up to the crack in the wall. It is the moment of the purification of the school and of the students; it is their baptism.

The actor Roohollah Zamani, Ali, won the Marcello Mastroianni award for the Best Actor or Actress at the Venice Film Festival. 

Roohollah Zamani is a professional. He quotes the unhappy children of Italian neorealism, like the Italian post-war children of Sciuscià or the scared son of Ladri di biciclette. The merit of Roohollah Zamani depends on the skill of the director, who explains the method followed by the children in their first film:

“We prepared all the camera movements in the actual settings, several times, without the actors. In the subway, regular traffic did not stop and there were a lot of regulations that made it harder for our shoot. So, we practiced the entire scene with the actors and without the cameras. The emotional moments were the most difficult ones as they had to be captured in one or two takes, maximum. We had no control over the scene of the conversation between Ali and Zahra: they had to get off a real train with the camera following them and they had to deliver their lines immediately.” (11)

The director joints the tragic scenes with fun and humorous ones, in fact, they are children. The tone must be easy despite the dramatic events. It always happens when kids look for a treasure, both materials like in The Goonies, and immaterial like in Stand by Me:

“I did not want to make an earnest polemic about child labour. I wanted to make an entertaining, energetic, joyful film full of adventure and courage, showing just how capable, resourceful and resilient these children really are.” (12)

The dominant atmosphere is good for its own sake. Everyone is virtuous, as well as the guys from the street. The director deliberately avoids any wrongdoing. For Majid Majidi sin does not exist in nature, it exists only in its discriminatory relation based on the sinner. Sin does not exist if committed by someone, indeed it is a gesture of rebellion. On the contrary, the same transgress executes by someone outside the prevalent thought, is deadly and a racist act.

These politically correct judgments create an opposite result in the film. With a normal style, with the kids always affable, the children look like the students of a religious school, not those of a ghetto in a confusing city.

Unfortunately, the effect is equivocal. There is no civic logic, there is no controversy, there are no challenges. There is a lot of pietism. Compared to Metri Shesh Va Nim - Just 6.5 the morality is antithetic. In Metri Shesh Va Nim - Just 6.5 the condemned to death piss themselves because they are about to be hanged, there is no charity, they killed and sold drugs, the penalty is deserved.

In Sun Children, the kids are unreal, they are naughty but good and generous both physically and in crimes. They are definitely not criminals. Perhaps the director forgets the ethical aspect. The killers, the drug dealers of Metri Shesh Va Nim - Just 6.5 if they had gone to school, they would have climbed the wall but not to enter, they would have climbed it to escape.

1 https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/229808906.pdf

2 https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/229808906.pdf

3 Film Pressbook

4 Film Pressbook

5 https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/229808906.pdf

6 https://www.goldenglobes.com/articles/sun-children-iran-interview-director-majid-majidi

7 https://www.unhcr.org/ir/refugees-in-iran/

8 https://www.goldenglobes.com/articles/sun-children-iran-interview-director-majid-majidi

9 https://www.goldenglobes.com/articles/sun-children-iran-interview-director-majid-majidi

10 https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/229808906.pdf

11 Film Pressbook

12 Film Pressbook