ahold of you, won’t let go
Regent Releases
Reza Najie in "Song of the Sparrows."
“The Song of Sparrows” is a bit like the TV comedy “Senfeld.”
It isn’t really about anything. There isn’t a plot that grabs you and holds you.
It’s more watching the hapless life of a poor Iranian man, Karim, played by Reza Najie. Najie looks like a cross between Hershel Bernardi and William Bendix.
In some ways, he’s a marshmallow as he tries to assert his authority.
This is well illustrated at the beginning of the film. His daughter is deaf and will soon be taking exams. But for some inexplicable reason she is playing near an abandoned sewage pond and her hearing aide falls in.
All of the kids in the neighborhood are in the septic system, looking for it. Karim takes off his trousers and plunges in to supervise.
One child asks if there are snakes in the pond. Karim says no, after which we see a snake come straight at them and Karim moves faster than the children to get out of its way.
It’s the beginning of Karim’s problems. The hearing aide is ruined. Also, he works on an ostrich farm which provides for some fascinating footage. When one of the birds gets loose, Karim goes after the valuable creature. He wears ostrich feathers and holds an ostrich head on a stick to flush the bird out.
But it doesn’t work and Karim returns to his employer, afraid he will be fired. Yeah, he’s fired.
A poor man, he’s now faced with replacing his daughter’s hearing aide and finding work. Also, he’s not so tough. We see him on the roof of his house (the part that has a roof) holding an antennae. His kids tell him how to move until they get a good picture to watch “Tom and Jerry” cartoons. So there he sits in the same spot for the span of the program. No Dish Network for this family.
So Karim goes to Tehran to get the bad news about the hearing aide. If he wants a new hearing aide through a welfare program, he must wait four months. Otherwise, he must pay for a new one himself.
Leaving the hearing aide center, he’s surprised when a businessman jumps on the small motorcycle he is operating. Turns out having a motorcycle in Tehran is pretty lucrative as a taxi service.
This is a different world for Karim from what he is used to in rural Iran. But not only does he get plenty of taxi business, he picks up junk around town he takes home to be used at his house or the homes of neighbors.
Karim is enraged on his way home when he sees family members selling flowers to passing drivers. He screams, he hits, he kicks. But that’s after stopping his cycle and running across something like eight lanes of traffic to get to them. They shame him by making it look like he can’t provide.
It’s a different but fascinating culture. Where else can a man stop traffic by bowing down and praying? (He places his forehead on what looks like a checker while meditating.) The driver waits.
And when there’s a traffic tie up, we see kids selling newspapers and one little girl dispensing incense to drivers, hoping for a tip. Try to find a scene like that in an American film.
There are some real unforgettable moments. Karim’s son and friends pool their money to buy fish they plan to raise and sell and become “millionaires.” But it was not to be. I won’t say what happens. See the movie to find out. But it is beautifully filmed.
There is an exploding film industry in Iran and Majid Majidi, the director of this film, is considered one of the best.
I was well impressed with this film, the beauty of the filmmaking, the mix of life, humanity, tragedy and comedy.
It is a real treasure and on so many levels.
SONG OF SPARROWS
• Directed by Majid Mamidi
• Written by Majid Majidi, Mehran Kashani
• In Persian with English subtitles
• Rated PG for brief, mild language
• Runtime: 96 minutes
• 4 stars out of 5
