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THE SONG OF SPARROWS Send This Review to a Friend
Iranian filmmaker Majid Majidi (“Children of Heaven” and “The Color of Paradise”) is a master at zeroing in on everyday life. He works in a meticulous but understated manner that allows events in the lives he examines to seemingly tell their own story. But it is his sensibility that provides a window onto his countrymen and what they must go through to survive. Any political observations gleaned through his films stem from the simple stories that he tells, not through polemics.
With “The Song of Sparrows” Majidi is at his best. The protagonist in this case is Karim, an ostrich farmer, played with thorough realism by Reza Naji. What Karim is put through in this exquisite film is Job-like. For starters he loses his work when an ostrich escapes and cannot be found, an expensive loss for the farm and a devastating one for Karim, as he struggles to earn enough money to proudly support his wife and children.
In addition, the hearing aid of his impaired daughter is lost down a sludge-laden well. Although recovered with great difficulty, the aid is ruined and Karim needs to find money to buy a new one. He goes to work in nearby Teheran with an old motorbike on the back of which he transports customers around the city, riders who sometimes beat him out of his fare. The scenes of Karim riding about not only show his determination and sometimes his desperation. They give us a background portrait of what the daily scene in the city looks like.
As if all of this were not enough, Karim suffers an injury that puts him out of commission for a time. We follow his story, and that of his family, including his children who have minds of their own and can get into trouble even when well-intentioned, as with their fixation on buying fish that they think will eventually earn them great sums of money. Viewing this film one gets an impression of rural neighborliness that contrasts with the larger picture of Iran that we get in the daily press. We also see in Karim’s relationship with his wife how the male authority is dominant.
Karim, through Majidi’s filmmaking talent, becomes a sort of Iranian Everyman, not a handsome hero, but an earthy, hardworking breadwinner who comes to symbolize the human condition. “The Song of Sparrows” is a remarkably affecting achievement. A Regent releasing release.
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