The Color of Paradise is a lovely, sad, but hopeful film!

The movie was in Persian with English subtitles but the story could have been in any language as themes and visuals will speak to you in whispers and shouts. In our universal language there is love, strength, anguish, shame, overcoming adversity. It's a story of a boy who is blind. He is simply a remarkable young boy who attends a school for the blind in a city far from his home in the villages of Northern Iran. The school itself is a site to behold-- I mean it would have been difficult to imagine the way the children learn to read and write in braile. The way the children get tapes from their loved ones in lieu of post cards or letters.

The little boy is very attentive in school, very bright. It is the last day of school before summer recess and the boy, along with many, many classmates await the arrival of their parents. We learn that the boy has lost his mother, and that his father will be coming to get him. It is rather sad as the boy waits and waits whilst all the other children's parents arrive and take them away. Yet the boy continues to wait. Finally, he father arrives and the boy says to him, "I thought you might not come." Oh, how that line touched me.....because the fact was the father really didn't want to come. He in fact regarded his son as a burden, a handicap to himself, a stain that tainted his reputation, a son he wanted no one, especially not a particular woman and her family in a neighboring village to know about. You see, he wanted to remarry and he didn't want the boy ruining his chances for remarriage.

Northern Iran is simply breathtaking. The myriad of wildflowers in meadows, the bumbling brooks. The cinematography is wonderful.

I am not going to tell you the rest of the story because I really think you should rent it from your local Blockbuster video and see for yourself. I don't work for Blockbuster. I don't work for movie company either. I don't even own stock in either. I sincerely think that if you enjoy movies about children and tear-jerkers, movies that leave you with hope, then you'll enjoy this film as it is wonderfully acted and wonderfully filmed.