This is a very interesting, heartwarming and soulful documentary. Produced by HBO Documentary Films and shot mostly in Egypt just prior to the Arab Spring in 2011, this documentary revolves around the Quran memorization competition, held there every year, where children from around the world are invited compete in their Quran recitation abilities.

The documentary follows three specific children competing to win first prize in that competition. The children come from various backgrounds: two boys from Senegal and Tajikistan, and a little girl from Maldives. The filmmakers highlight these children's normal daily lives, their struggles in their home countries and the challenges they face in the competition.

Beautifully made, this documentary is an eye opener to the hardships people in different parts of the word face; an interesting peek into the Middle East's most recent political past; but also, and most importantly, this documentary serves as an exposure and as a nice introduction to the Quran for non-Muslims. I highly recommend.

Initially, I thought this documentary would be like any other documentary that i forced myself to watch; slow, possibly judgmental and phony. How wrong i was proved to be. I was eating my dinner and thought to myself that by the time i finished it, i would turn off my laptop if the documentary was no good. I was wrong and i was stuck between my meal and this movie till practically the end of the movie, and these are the 5 reasons why i like this piece of work so much:

1) Love: It's very touching to see this feeling, best portrayed by the simple conversation between the Tajik boy and his less than fortunate village father, whom with limited knowledge that he had, gave everything he could to better his son, in his own way of course. Also the conversation with the Maldives' girl, whom missed her mother so much during the trip, saying all the lovely good things about her mommy. Her mother's hope for her little girl, though in contrast with her own husband. Another amazing scene was with the outvoted Senegalese boy, perhaps disappointed and disheartened that he was disqualified, later received his own magic moment in one of the mosques in Egypt. He was honored by so many kisses by the masses after wards.

2) Simple Makes Perfect: This movie shuts the door for any of its crew to portray themselves more than the subjects of the movie. The movie connects one segment to another by writing simple one or two liners and let the subjects themselves, through their own natural reactions or interviews dictate the message of the movie. No annoying interviewer!!!

3) Subtle Ideological Difference: This movie subtly and impartially presents contrasting ideological differences within the Islamic community. With the competition and its participants as the background, these differences of ideology are portrayed between the Maldives' girl's father and mother (ie: what's best for the girl in the future),simple conversation in the buses about having Jews living within the Muslim world, worrying concern by the 'moderate' Egyptian Imam and Maldives' ex-leader against the perceived threat of fundamentalism, the Tajik's Principal vs the village school leader. Pheww...some heavy stuff.

4) Quranic Miracle: Can't help but to ponder how the thick holy book in Arabic, 600 in pages, more than 100 in chapters and more than 6000 in verses were easily memorized by these young boys and girls of Islam. What's more amazing, some of them are non-Arabic speakers and they are as young as 7 to 10 years old!!! Maybe their parents do not have PS3 and TV channels at home...but still, the Maldives' girl was playing super Mario and did excel in other non-religious subjects as well. Truly breathtaking...

5) Ugly Truth: Maybe it's just me, but some of the judges' were less than Quranic in their treatment of the Senegalese boy (no, not as cruel as Simon Cowell). What about that interrogation of the Tajik boy after his recitation? Thank God there was one sane man there...By the way, Hosni Mubarak looked very angelic in the movie. Little that he knew that soon he would be...oh well...

This is the first time i'm writing a review and maybe it is because i haven't been so unexpectedly thrown off by any movie/documentary like this before.

When i started watching "Koran by Heart", I didn't expect much from it other than the director following the competition in Egypt and pretty much that. But the way the movie follows the three kids, provides their story in bits, and focuses on the competition along with, it was simply brilliant. The documentary has a richness to it that makes it a must see for everyone.

I won't write anything about the story but again say that it is the most inspiring documentary I have watched in a long time. It made me laugh and it made me cry. And while the major focus of the documentary is the competition, it tackles so much more than that!