The Song of Sparrows

Iranian director Majid Majidi recycles the touching tearjerker formula found in his Children of Heaven, Baran, and The Color of Paradise with a film that celebrates traditional values while emphasizing the dehumanizing tendencies of modern urban life. Relying on homespun characters and scene-stealing children, The Song of Sparrows demonstrates the director's tendency to go for the heartstrings, but like the Italian neo-realist classics, it still delivers an emotional wallop. In a mountainous district outside Tehran, Karim (Reza Naji), a gruff but loving man, supports his family as an ostrich wrangler until one of the birds escapes and he's fired. Riding to the city on his motorbike to get his daughter's hearing aid repaired, Karim is mistaken for a taxi driver, and he discovers that ferrying people around on his bike can be a lucrative occupation. He's also allowed to scavenge at a construction site and brings home various things, including a new television antenna, to his kids' delight. In the process of accumulating some material goods, however, Karim begins acting selfishly, and his angry outbursts at the children—particularly his young son who dreams (with his pals) of becoming a millionaire by raising fish in a nearby well—grow increasingly intense. Ultimately, it takes an accident to make Karim appreciate the principles he's been losing. While there's no denying that The Song of Sparrows is shamelessly manipulative, it's hard to resist a film of such sweetness and poignancy. Recommended. (F. Swietek)