The Song of Sparrows

Avaze gonjeshk-ha

Iran

2008

96 Min

Color

1.85:1

Farsi

Currently 3.7/5 Stars.
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SCR Majid Majidi, Mehran Kashani

CAST Mohammad Amir Naji, Hossein Aghazi, Maryam Akbari, Kamran Dehghan

MUSIC Turaj Mansuri

Berlinale (Competition): Best Actor, Karlovy Vary (Horizons), São Paulo

Synopsis

Karim works on an ostrich farm. He has a small house on the outskirts of town and manages to earn a decent living from his job. But then one of the ostriches runs away. Karim is deemed responsible for the loss and is sacked. Worried about how he will now earn his bread, he sets off in search of the bird, but is unable to find it. One day he goes into town to get his daughter’s hearing aid repaired. He gives a man a ride on the back of his motorbike in return for a fee. In view of the relatively good sum this earns him he decides to continue this taxi service on a regular basis. Every day he rides into town, bringing back with him all kinds of rummage – old furniture, car parts and such like. His contact with the city dwellers and the way of life there changes Karim’s personality. Bit by bit his pretty little courtyard is transformed into an ugly, uncomfortable storeroom.

At one time, Karim was a friendly and generous man – now he is rapacious and only interested in his junk, and hardly has any time left for his family. He is oblivious to his wife’s problems, but, when he sees her give a poor neighbour a door, he shows no pity but retrieves the door from the neighbour and puts it back with the rest of his old rubbish. Wealth is the only thing that interests him.

Then one night when he is sorting out his second-hand goods, he falls off a pile of junk and breaks his foot. Obliged to take to his sickbed, he watches his wife and children struggle to earn a living and sees with his own eyes just how much support they receive from the neighbours during this difficult time. The house begins to change and, so too, gradually, does Karim. –Berlinale

Director

Majid Majidi

Majid Majidi (Persian: مجید مجیدی , born 17 April 1959 in Tehran) is an internationally and critically acclaimed Iranian film director, film producer and screenwriter. Majidi’s films have touched on many themes and genres and he has won many international awards.

Born in an Iranian middle class family, he grew up in Tehran and at the age of 14 he started acting in amateur theater groups. He then studied at the Institute of Dramatic Arts in Tehran.

After the Iranian Revolution in 1979, his interest in cinema brought him to act in various films, most notably Mohsen Makhmalbaf’s Boycott in 1985.

As of 2004, Majidi was the only Iranian director who has been nominated for an Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film with the film Children of Heaven in 1998. He lost the award to the Italian film Life Is Beautiful by Roberto Benigni.

Majidi has directed three other feature films since Children of Heaven: The Color of Paradise… read more

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fairyne

24Dec12

Memikat...Indah dalam kesederhanaan.

DT

28Jun12

Majidi’s cinematic language appears quite different to his contemporaries’ in Panahi and Kiarostami, displaying closer links with the social realism and vibrancy of the cinema of Ken Loach, and the like. The piece takes on a more openly endearing nature as a result, as it draws a whimsical, ever so slight look at the widening city-country divide increasingly apparent even in modern-day Iran. An affable work.

Ramin S. Khanjani

26Oct12

The analogy between Majidi and Loach is a bit too unexpected, for the latter is a conscientious leftist filmmaker who uses his cinematic endeavours to make cases for change and decrying the inequalities in the society. On the other hand, Majidi is almost the opposite who allied to the Islamic regime- contrary to Panahi- unscrupulously glorifies and sanctifies the poverty.
DT

1Nov12

Thanks for the response. I'll admit this was and still is the only Majidi I've seen, so you are in all likelihood more accurate in your assessment.