The Song of Sparrows (Avaze gonjeshk-ha)
Majid Majidi | Iran | 2008
96 mins
I can not think of any other director that seems to have as much love for life as Majid Majidi. His The Song of Sparrows similar to some of his other films can be sometimes sentimental, but of those rare kinds that works. I find that his sentimental plot devices break through my wall of cynicism and nihilism. He fills his film with a barrage of beauty. Children playing, grass gently moving in the breeze, images of birds and goldfish, colorful clothes. How can you not love something that is so pleasing to the eye? Majid Majidi’s characters always go through hard times, but Majidi loves his characters and does not torture them for our viewing pleasure. They go through difficulties, but it is okay, because you feel like Majidi cares for them. His movies do not have bad characters to make the life of his protagonists hard, just so the audience can view a conflict. Instead his characters are just normal people living normal lives, and is it Majidi’s fault if normal life is full of challenges?
But the director also knows that life is not only about challenges, it is about the little details that make us smile. And The Song of Sparrows is yet another of Majidi’s films that constantly put a smile on my face. I was smiling when the father had a broken leg and his small daughter was sitting by his side and using crayons to gently draw little flowers on his cast.
The Song of Sparrows is a smart film and can be used as a study on capitalism and the impact of materialistic gain on a person. But that is not the movie’s appeal to me. I was not even thinking of that while watching the movie and only thought about it a bit on those lines when I got home. Because when I was watching the movie, I was not concerned about its symbolisms and metaphors. I was too busy caring about its characters and their lives. When I watched Majidi’s The Color of Paradise, I thought it was a very religious film, and by that I mean, that it felt very spiritual. And I feel the same way about The Song of Sparrows.
Majid Majidi has admitted that because he grew up in a religious household, religious values are a huge part of him; though he insists these are universal values.