The Song of Sparrows

• Director: Majid Majidi
• Writer: Mehran Kashani, Majid Majidi
• Cast: Mohammad Amir Naji
• Theatrical Release Date: April 3, 2009
• Distributor: Regent Releasing
• On The Web Film WebsiteIMDB Entry

Synopsis: Karim works at an ostrich farm outside of Tehran, Iran. He leads a simple and contented life with his family in his small house, until one day when one of the ostriches runs away. Karim is blamed for the loss and is fired from the farm. Soon after, he travels to the city in order to repair his elder daughter’s hearing aid but finds himself mistaken for a motorcycle taxi driver. Thus begins his new profession: ferrying people and goods through heavy traffic. But the people and material goods that he deals with daily start to transform Karim’s generous and honest nature, much to the distress of his wife and daughters. It is up to those closest to him to restore the values that he had once cherished. [Synopsis courtesy of Regent Releasing]

Round-up: "Deeply humanistic" says Variety of Iranian filmmaker Majid Majidi's (“Children of Heaven”, "The Weeping Willow") latest, "The Song of Sparrows," in a review that goes on to describe the film as... "beautifully crafted, often sentimental, sometimes humorous." Echoing the praise the film has received on the festival circuit, the Hollywood Reporter says, "The story, spiked with gentle humor, moves smoothly through the standard tropes of Iranian art house cinema" and Box Office Magazine lauds the "simple, sometimes striking, beauty of cinematographer Turaj Mansuri’s imagery." Screen Daily gives the film cautious praise, calling it a "briskly likeable comedy" but notes that Majidi directs with "a soft, sometimes facile touch that quickly palls."