Movie : The Song of Sparrows ( 2008 ) Iranian

Genre : Classic | Drama

Director :  Majid Majidi ( Director of Children of Heaven and the willow tree )

Our rating : 9.5 /10

The Song of sparrows is just so amazing movie depicting journey of One man's life and is beautifully crafted scene by scene. Script is not so complicated and plot is so imple portraying a common man

life , people surrounding him and problems he goes through in his personal life. Movie is about Karim who works as a Care taker at a Ostrich Farm. Karim lives with his wife , two  daughters and a young son in a small house on a village near tehran. One fine day , a ostrich escapes from the farm , despite several attempts he couldn't get the ostrich back and is lost for ever. Being responsible for this incident , his boss fires him from the job , dejected returns back to his family as a lost soul. One fine morning , karim decides to travel in his old bike to the Tehran city  for repairing his elder daughter Hearing aid. While in Tehran , people mistake him as a ferry ride motorcycle taxi driver decide to request karim for a drop in his bike. Karim later realizes that this is a good earning job ferrying people around the city .Taking this opportunity in hand ,  he starts to gain handful of money. During one of his day in Tehran he happens to come across a building site during one of his drop and see's lot of trashes and iron goods been thrown at the backyard. Karim decides to take some from the junkyard everyday like old antenna's , window frames , doors etc to his home when he returns back to his village in evening. The village he lives in has only few countable house here and there survived by karim's relatives. They share and they stay together as one large family though they live apart in separate house.

In meantime his young son along with children's in the area decide to cleanup a abandoned  sludge-filled water storage and refill with good water for starting up a fish farm.The children part in this feature film is so touching , real and cool. They add more freshness to the movie and their attempt to start the fish farm regardless of many hurdles they face is pure class. Karim starts to earn more money then he got while working in ostrich farm. How a common man life slowly changes when he starts seeing some money in his pocket and how his attitude towards his life as a honest man changes slowly  is clearly shown as movie progresses . He starts to quarrel with children's , he doesn't share anymore goodness with his neighbors , he looses temper and he is no more of how he was before.

Karim later meets up with accident while cleaning up his house and happen to broke his leg during this incident. He goes bed rest and he can no more move anywhere or go to work. So he stays full time in his house. That is when he realizes the love his wife 'n' children's  have on him and the care the neighbors 'n' relatives took  when he became immobile . Now karim repents himself for
everything he made others go through and his heart slowly gets purified. And end of the movie , one of his peers inform him that the ostrich which ran away came back herself to the farm. Karim is so relieved and he now feels a fresh air going through his lungs.He takes a deep breath with a big relief..There were so many stunning scene's in the movie , be it while the children's losing balance drop the tub containing fishes on the pavement and how they wipe the fishes to the nearby roadside water-flow canal seeing the fishes fighting for their life is a heart touching tear dropping scene and also when Karim wakes one morning to see a sparrow inside his house trying to escape out of the house which is completely sealed. Despite of his broken leg karim crawls to the door , opens it with great struggle to see the sparrow flinging away to the nearby tree's . It gives a great sigh of relief to karim sparing a bird and giving her a much needed freedom. The movie ends with a scene where karim with his broken leg , rides his bike back to the ostrich farm to see them and he emotionally connects with the birds in there.

Such a simple narration of the script subject to so many realistic scene's happen in a normal man's life ,especially the father son combo was so lovable , elegantly done and mind blowing .The Background score was simply the best and soothing to ears. You would definitely be lost in such a beautifully screen-played movie and you will never knew its 90 minutes over and that you are there almost at end of the film. Wish the movie had additional one hour of play showing the children's starting up the fish farm successfully , his daughter get back her hearing aid and karim gets back his old job in ostrich farm. But directors leave us guessing and is compelling , self explanatory as movie is not so complicated. The location were film was shot  was awesome and hats off to the cinematography work brilliantly done , a definite virtual treat to the audience . Very few directors can show the movies in a realistic way stands unique with its screenplay. In that regards Director majid has done exceptionally well. Its definitely a mesmerizing movie one should ever miss watching it.

FAM Punch Line :  Iranian movies always sets a high standard to this film world where they prove every-time that its not the cast or the advanced film elements like CG works that matters , but rather a good script in a hands of good director can bring a lot . This movie will definitely be the one and  will serve you as a inspiration to watch other iranian movies. Have Fun watching