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Sun Children Movie Review

Sun Children is a 2020 Iranian drama film directed by Majid Majidi. It is  movie that is overstuffed with way too many subplots.

The movie follows 12-year-old Ali and his three friends. Together they work hard to survive and support their families. In a turn of events that seems miraculous, Ali is entrusted to find hidden treasure underground. First and foremost, the film’s influences are obvious from the start. It combines Charles Dickens novels with the Italian neorealism. I like the latter more than I like the former, but still the movie felt a bit too old-fashioned, and probably a past time period would have been a better choice for it.

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The movie is very interesting, don’t get me wrong. It’s just that it’s an utter mess. I liked most of the elements and subplots, but the movie was concerned with way too much material that many ended up being either rushed or misplaced. The whole immigration subplot was very sidelined for instance. The child labor subject was the best developed one, but all the others suffered in comparison.

The tunnel scenes were the best ones as the adventure elements there were thrilling and the sequences were amazingly filmed. I also liked the role of the teacher who was so memorable in dialogue and interactions with kids. The kids themselves are solid, but not greatly developed, though the protagonist himself is quite memorable, especially the child actor playing him as he has that child movie star look to him that was perfect for the film.

Sun Children features tremendous cinematography and a couple of shots here and there that are instantly memorable and just dazzling to behold. Combining the more appealing parts of the city with the filthy underground tunnels was striking and the score and direction are both quite good as is the movie’s dialogue with the humor also being solid, though sparse. I liked the film’s dramatic and adventurous elements overall, but both felt somewhat disconnected from one another as the film never quite decided whether or not it’s a serious or lightweight feature.

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Iran’s Sun Children is a tonally disconnected mess of a film. The movie is interesting in all of its elements, whether dramatic or lightweight and adventurous, and it’s mostly memorable in all subplots, but it was concerned with too much material for such a short runtime, resulting in many rushed parts and a very chaotic structure. It’s so well shot and definitely entertaining, but it should have been much better.

My Rating – 3.5