hareendranep This movie underlines the fact that a movie belongs to the director, How he treats the theme and narrate the story. This movie is about a very ordinary man living in the outskirts of Teharan, Finding it very difficult of get the income sufficient for the family, But happily living with them.The struggle of a common man is beautifully enacted by Mohammed amir Naji. He really deserve an applause for his splendid performance throughout the movie.All other characters in the family also given very good performance. The first few minutes of the movie is in a ostrich farm where the protagonist is working. Those who have not seen ostriches in real life this is visual treat. Similar is the way in which two wheeler's are used as Taxi in Tehran.The silence of Desert is beautifully captured in this movie. The background music is also very apt. Overall this movie is a pleasant experience , thanks to the care taken by majid majidi in each scene.

billcr12 The Song of Sparrows is a simple film about Karim, an uncomplicated man who is a caretaker of ostriches on a farm. One day, one of the birds escapes and Karim is fired. He rides his motorbike to the city in order to get his daughter's hearing aid repaired. Someone mistakes him for a taxi, and he discovers a new way to make money. The problem is that the passengers are mostly rude and nasty to the good natured guy, and it sours his outlook on humanity. He also becomes a pack rat, picking up all kinds of junk on his daily travels on the "taxi" bike. The stuff piles up, much to the consternation of his wife. He fights with the neighbor over an old, used door that they have borrowed, demanding it back. He loses his temper, and during a rampage, breaks his foot. He must then rely on the kindness of others because he is bound to a bed while his leg heals. The Song of Sparrows is a beautiful movie with excellent performances all around.

Magic Lamp No big drama, no intense car chase, no sex-laden imagery. Yet the film tugs. It has a compelling draw. It has all the simplicity of making a living, raising kids, living life. And then there are moments which confront complexity, where dreams and desires crash against life's harshness. Letting go an easy but corrupt deal which could pay for the daughter's hearing aid, being able to break into a song after the kids have witnessed their long-cherished plan choke on itself. The camera captures some poetry – of blue doors, sweeping vistas with ostriches, and landscapes which come alive from a kid's loving scrawl to full bloom. Did you know the pleasure of being on a breezy rooftop with your wife while the kids watch TV late in the evening? For such and many other life's precious moments, this film is a must watch.

Eternality A Golden Bear nominee of the Berlin International Film Festival, The Song Of Sparrows is Majid Majidi's first entry into a film festival of such prestige. The Iranian director of critically-acclaimed films such as The Children Of Heaven (1997) and The Color Of Paradise (1999) directs another praiseworthy picture, though I regard this as a less than stellar effort as compared to his best works.Majidi directs Mohammed Amir Naji to a Best Actor win and deservedly so because his portrayal of the lead character, Karim, is remarkably and convincingly natural. He plays the father of a relatively poor family who loses his job as a worker in an ostrich farm. He has a deaf daughter whose hearing aid is damaged after she dropped it in a water storage tank. Struggling to make ends meet as well as promising her daughter a new hearing aid to help her to cope with the coming exams, Karim goes out into the city to find temporary jobs in his old but dependable motorcycle.The Song Of Sparrows centers on Karim and uses him as a lens to reveal the two different ways of life inherent in Iran's increasingly urbanized setting – the tight-knitted rural community and the fragmented urban society. In the latter, the pace is fast and at times unsettling. Everyone is in a rush and this forces Karim to adopt a more pragmatic approach to earn a living – offering rides to anyone to anywhere in the city and allow them to pay him any amount they like.Occasionally, he does the odd job of delivering goods. In one instance, he loses his way and is forced to bring home a small refrigerator for the night. This 'expensive foreign object' causes excitement in the household because they have never seen anything like it before. Majidi, once again, highlights the urbanization, or more precisely, the dawn of urbanization which may change the rural way of life within the next decade or so in Iran.The conservative and overly protective Karim suffers a serious injury which renders him immobile for quite some time. This frees his children, especially his driven son to chase his own dreams – to rear fishes in the water storage tank and sell them to become a millionaire. Reality says that his dream is improbable because the construct of Iran's society is such that it is impossibly difficult to succeed with a low-class background.In a brilliant metaphor which describes the harshness of this reality, Majidi directs a scene which shows Karim's son and his friends frantically carrying a heavily leaking barrel containing many live fishes to safety only to trip and fall and see their 'dream' spill away onto the pavement. The Song Of Sparrows features a beautiful score by Hossien Alizadeh, and some impressive cinematography juxtaposing the quiet isolation of rural life and the hustle and bustle of urbanity. It is at times heartwarming, but for a Majidi film, it slightly lacks in emotion and the climax is not as powerful as intended. Nevertheless, The Song Of Sparrows is a decent showcase of the richness of Iranian cinema.SCORE: 7.5/10 (www.filmnomenon.blogspot.com) All rights reserved!