Film: The Song of Sparrows
Directed by Majid Majidi
Iran (2008)
Family Drama/Tragi-comedy
10 parts/95 minutes
In Farsi with optional English subtitles (default)
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(Rated PG by MPAA)
Synopsis:
Karim works at an ostrich farm outside of Tehran, Iran. He leads a simple and contented life with his family in his small house, until one day when one of the ostriches runs away. Karim is blamed for the loss and is fired from the farm. Soon after, he travels to the city in order to repair his elder daughter's hearing aid but finds himself mistaken for a motorcycle taxi driver. Thus begins his new profession: ferrying people and goods through heavy traffic. But the people and material goods that he deals with daily starts to transform Karim's generous and honest nature, much to the distress of his wife and daughters. It is up to those closest to him to restore the values that he had once cherished.
Review:
The director writes in a statement about his intentions with the film: "My aim was to portray contemporary people today vis-à-vis the modern world in order to show how the era of modernization has put human beings in a stranglehold. By this I do not mean that I am opposed to modernity, per se. Modernization should be at the service of humanity, yet people find themselves conquered by it. The result is that with each passing day we are becoming more distant from our own human values. . . . All of our values — including friendship, morality and beauty — become less important day by day. In opposition to this process, my aim was to say that we must return to our human essence or else face a major disaster in the future."
Iranian director Majid Majidi's seriocomedy The Song of Sparrows projects a comfortable, funky lyricism. The picture exudes a down-to-earth, one-thing-after-another plainness that makes it feel both refreshing and accessible; we laugh at the befuddlement of Chaplinesque everyman Karim, an Iranian ostrich farmer, even as we fully empathize with his logical reactions to the nuttiness of the surrounding world. Although the story, written by Majidi, deals in strong lines and obvious contrasts, Majidi creates such a warm and lyrical flow that moralizing, or any sense of being taught a lesson, is never an issue. Jetting around the dense, ugly city on his motorcycle, Karim sees the corrupting influences of modern life: men bilking him out of his fare, plotting on their cell phones and angrily demanding he find another spot to wait for customers. Soon, Karim is returning to his village with junk he finds in the city and his home becomes a monument to the unnecessary accumulation of useless things.
Even his children get into the act. Youngest son Hussein (Hamed Aghazi) has dreams of cleaning out the sludge-filled pit and filling it with fish to be bred and sold. But here, Majidi shows he's not totally against the notion of money and chattel. He's just arguing for restraint and always being aware and appreciative of what nature provides. One of the film's most arresting images shows what happens when Hussein and his youthful pals become too wrapped up in capitalist concerns. Majidi's solution is a proper and satisfying readjustment of Hussein's attitudes towards wealth. Everything floats on a cloud of unforced symbolism and sweet humor. According to Majidi, traditional values and materialistic concerns don't have to be mutually exclusive and they don't have to conflict. Just make sure the right one is driving your actions.
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The Song Of Sparrows part 6by alchemistkx4,430 views
@shukkoorshah absolutely amazing....i love all his movies
KaliPuppies 4 months ago