Little Philip’s Birthday

We live each day with a purpose. We try to develop ourselves to be our best version every day. And for parents like me, that is the ultimate goal. Being a parent in a wonderful and challenging world is a struggling beautiful experience. I know many parents would agree that this fruitful thing called parenthood is probably one of the toughest responsibilities any person in his lifetime can commit to. When you are a parent you don’t teach your child the standards of what is socially accepted, of how he should act or how to respond to everything around him, but they learn from our example, by how we handle things, on how we model the ideal person, and on how true we are to ourselves in helping them understand the reality of life.

Often, if not all the time, our children become our mirror of not just literally the existence of life, but as well as the circumstances in it that we find hard to understand, the reflection of ourselves we don’t see, and the truth on how well we are doing in this responsibility. However, as much as we wanted to give them the best environment, shelter them from harm, and help them see how beautiful the world is, there will always be obstacles along that journey. Today, we will venture to the story of a mother and son, caught in between life’s chaos and a day extra-special apart from the others, I give you the short touching film “Little Philip’s Birthday” by Hesam Anvari.

Hesam Anvari, the director, writer, and co-producer of this touching family drama bring us closer to the life of a mother and son, trying to get past the struggles of life and get to that special day young Philip has been waiting. The story of this film highlights the sad reality of a single parent’s struggle to provide a living for her child, people’s judgment on what they see other than what they should understand, and how a child sees life as it is being painted before his eyes. As a parent, watching this film gave me a deeper understanding of the impact of our choices on the views and opinions of our children. On how some scenarios may seem small and irrelevant, makes a whole lot of sense to a child’s understanding. This film depicts how unique parenthood is, that is why we are in no position to judge, humiliate, and discriminate against one another because it is not within the norms of what is leveled as the standard of parenting.

This film is worth highlighting not only because of its note-worthy story about life but also because of the film’s impressive cinematography and amazing cast, led by the young and very talented Barsam Naemi and the lovely Vivian Davidson. This mother and son tandem’s connection is strong and heartfelt. I felt their dedication to send out a message to the world about their situation which is often judge and mistreated by many. Amazing work to director Hesam Anvari, considering he is a first-time filmmaker, and with the caliber he had shown in this movie, I am certain this won’t be his last. Cheers!