The song of the sparrows
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| German title | The song of the sparrows |
| Original title | Avaze gonjeshk-ha |
| Country of production | Iran |
| original language | Farsi |
| Publishing year | 2008 |
| length | 96 minutes |
| Rod | |
| Director | Majid Majidi |
| script |
Majid Majidi Mehran Kashani |
| production | Majid Majidi |
| music | Hossein Alizāde |
| camera | Tooraj Mansouri |
| cut | Hassan Hassandoost |
| occupation | |
| |
The Song of the Sparrows ( Persian آواز گنجشکها, English The Song of Sparrows ) is an Iranian feature film from 2008.
action
Karim, a simple man, lives with his family in a modest house in a village near Tehran . He works on an ostrich farm and gets into trouble when an ostrich escapes from the enclosure. Karim goes in search of the ostrich in the wide steppe . He tries to attract the ratite with an ostrich costume, but it is nowhere to be found. After the unsuccessful search, he loses his job. As a severance payment, he receives a huge ostrich egg, which his wife uses to make omelets for the whole family. In addition, his oldest daughter's hearing aid is broken and there is no money for a new one. In addition, the family has no health insurance. In addition to his eldest daughter, who is around 12 years old, he also has a son of around nine and a daughter of around five. Karim is not a domestic tyrant, he treats his wife and children well and makes no distinction between the daughters and the son. In a telling scene, he brings his daughter to the school bus, kneels down in front of her and ties her shoelaces that have opened. The schooling of his daughter is very important to him: he repeatedly emphasizes how important the hearing aid is for the girl, since exams will soon be due at school. The family is also not portrayed as particularly religious. One time Karim is shown in prayer.
He rides his motorcycle into town to see if the hearing aid needs repair - but the cost of a new hearing aid is enormous. In front of the medical center, he sits on his motorcycle and thinks about what to do when a man just sits in the back seat and asks him if he's free. This is how Karim becomes a motorcycle taxi driver in Tehran. Karim now makes his way to Tehran every day and suddenly earns a fortune compared to the income on the ostrich farm. He finds his way around the hectic Moloch Tehran surprisingly well and mainly chauffeurs manager types with cell phones who rush to any appointments. He even transports entire refrigerators on his small motorcycle. He quickly learns the rules of the game of “wild” capitalism, is sometimes taken advantage of and cheated of his money, the next time it's the other way around. He is also tempted to steal a refrigerator and resell it, but resisted. A wealthy electrical retailer offers him a permanent job as a transport driver because of his honesty.
Karim is particularly worried about his young son. The boy, his friends and cousins are constantly roaming around an old cistern near Karim's house, where Karim regularly scares them away. The boys have the obsession to clean the cistern of rubbish, to clarify the water and to release fish in the water. So they want to start breeding for ornamental fish in order to earn money and, according to their own statements, to become millionaires. Karim is very upset about these plans and doesn't want to know anything about them. His wife and eldest daughter secretly support the plan: The children drive behind their father's back with an uncle to Tehran to sell roses to drivers on the city motorway. When Karims catches her doing it one day, he freaks completely and destroys the flower stand. But, as usually, he lets his wife calm him down after a long resistance. In the meantime, the boys have actually managed to clear the cistern and prepare it for fish.
Every day Karim brings home new things that he has collected from building rubble and bulky waste , from TV antennas to discarded doors. His property is slowly developing into a scrap store . As his camp grows, so does his own greed. When his wife gives a cousin a particularly beautiful, blue-painted door, he takes it back immediately and puts it back with the old things. One day he falls unhappy while cleaning up his dump, is buried under his junk store and breaks his leg. Tied to the bed, he has to watch his family and their children try to get on with everyday life. The neighbors and relatives also support the family and especially Karim with care, encouragement and financial help. One cousin in particular, who has a nursery and who regularly delivers his plants to Tehran, is very supportive. He also lets the boy work who actually earns the money for the fish with his friends. However, the fish had an accident and in the end they only brought one specimen home with them, which they placed in the water of the cistern.
Gradually, Karim, who now suddenly has time to rethink his life, comes to his senses again on his sick bed, where he listens to the song of the sparrows : wealth is not everything in life, friendship, family and human sympathy are all the more important. In a final, dream-like sequence , a bouquet can be seen doing a courtship dance .
Others
Contrary to his role, in which he plays a man around 40, the main actor Reza Naji was already in his mid-60s when filming.
Reviews
“A soothing oasis in the midst of all the powerful US epics and cerebral European psychodramas at the Berlinale. His imagery fulfills a longing that apparently cannot be satisfied by opulent presentations and special effects. Majidi plays a lot with symbolism, but at the same time he leaves the viewer space to think, to dream, to step into the canvas. "
“The true value of life, that's the friends, that is what you could call the lesson at the end of the film. A simple truth, perhaps too simple for many viewers. But it's good to be reminded of it every now and then. "
Awards
The film ran in the competition at the Berlinale 2008 , and main actor Reza Naji was awarded the Silver Bear for his performance as Karim . Months later, The Song of the Sparrows was selected as the official Iranian contribution for the nomination for the best foreign language film at the 2009 Academy Awards.
Web links
- The Song of Sparrows in the Internet Movie Database (English)
- The Song of Sparrows at Rotten Tomatoes (English)
Individual evidence
- ↑ http://movies.nytimes.com/2009/04/03/movies/03spar.html
- ↑ Awards of the Berlinale 2008 , accessed on April 29, 2017.
- ↑ cf. Official shortlist of foreign language feature films with English titles (English; accessed October 22, 2008)