Majidi's "Song of Sparrows'

I've heard for years that Iranian cinema was the closest my generation has come to Italian neo-realism, but I never quite got around to actually seeing any Iranian films. All that changed recently when I viewed a copy of Majid Majidi's Song of Sparrows.

Majidi is probably best known in the U.S. as the director of Children of Heaven, which was nominated for a "Best Foreign Language" Oscar in 1998. That film concerned two Iranian children and their search for a missing pair of shoes. Song of Sparrows is about an adult, but it too is helped by Majidi's gift for portraying children in a realistic, totally non-cloying manner.

The little things

Song of Sparrows revolves around Karim (Reza Naji), a simple ostrich wrangler who lives in the country, not far from Tehran. When an ostrich runs away on Karim's watch, he is fired. Driving his motorcycle to Tehran, he is mistaken for one of that city's many motorcycle taxi drivers. Not one to squander an opportunity, Karim is soon driving his bike into the city every day in search of fares.

Unfortunately, this unexpected urban success goes to Karim's head, and soon he is obsessed with the bottom line, becoming almost oblivious to his family's simpler hopes and dreams. When Karim breaks his leg while doing a chore, he gains new appreciation for the little things in life.

A lesson for Zellweger

There are several good reasons to see Song of Sparrows, but the biggest is Naji's incredibly touching, naturalistic performance as Karim. Hollywood types like Renée Zellweger win Oscars for playing "ordinary folk" (e.g., in Cold Mountain), but such performances seem cartoonish next to Najie's gritty portrayal. Sometimes I forgot I was watching a fictional film and thought I'd mistakenly turned on a documentary instead.

Similarly, the child actors in Song of Sparrows are exceptional in that they never seem to be acting at all. Majidi has them behaving the way the way normal children probably— except, of course, in Hollywood, where every child seems equipped with an endless supply of witty one-liners.

If I had a problem with Song of Sparrows, it was that it was a little too slow, and its symbolism was a mite heavy-handed. After a while, I found myself saying to the screen, "OK, already— I get it: Ostriches don't fly. They symbolize shattered dreams." Still, when was the last time a Hollywood film was accused of excessive symbolism? Majid Majidi has fashioned a charming, credible and often funny tale of what happens when a simple man becomes not so simple.