Hollywood Hues
Majidi’s magic at work

In The Song of Sparrows, Iranian director Majid Majidi weaves a tapestry of ordinary lives with flashes of humour, writes Ervell E Menezes

THE closing film of IFFI 2008 is Majid Majidi’s The Song of Sparrows, which traces the trials and tribulations of Karim, a simple man working on an ostrich farm. And like most Iranian films, it has a strong narrative. The joys and hardships of the hero whom circumstances change his once generous nature and how it is circumstances once again that are responsible for restoring it.

Karim works on an ostrich farm outside Tehran. Here cinematographer Turaj Mansuri freaks out on the rhythmic movements of the ostriches. They may look ugly in close-ups but their group patterns are fetchingly recorded. The story begins with the escape of one of the ostriches from the farm and Karim’s efforts to recapture it.

After Karim is sacked for negligence, he goes to Tehran to repair his daughter’s hearing aid. But he is mistaken for a motorcycle taxi driver and hence he enters a new trade. It is a case of folks setting out to do something and actually doing something, but rarely doing the things they set out to do. It is during his taxi escapades that he collects little knick-knacks and this makes him selfish and possessive.

Then his little son Hamid, a cute mischievous brat, is obsessed with fish and dreams of becoming a millionaire after setting up a farm. But he goes to the nearby pond full of rubbish, which makes Karim mad. The hearing aid of the daughter had fallen in this pond. Karim is always chastising Hamid for his mischief even though he loves him dearly. This dilemma of love and anger is a common subject in Iranian cinema.

Working hard all day, Karim scarcely gets breathing time. But when he’s back home he cannot cope with household problems. He becomes short-tempered much to the consternation of his wife and children.

Director Majid Majidi weaves an interesting tapestry of ordinary, everyday lives with appropriate flashes of humour, so important in sustaining the viewer’s interest. One such sequence is Karim, simulating an ostrich, in order to attract the runaway bird. There are more of these in the daily anecdotes that take place.

It is just 96 minutes of first-rate drama and events build up to that dramatic climax but not before Karim is laid low due to one of his outbursts of temper.

But all’s well that ends well when by a sudden quirk of fate, Karim finds himself quite pleased with it and the ostrich dance gives the story a fitting climax, colourful as well as symbolic, in true Iranian tradition.

The performances are excellent, extremely natural with Reza Naji doing a fine job in the lead, ably supported by the other performances. It is film festival fare at its very best.

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