The Song of Sparrows; Movie review, 5 stars

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The Song of Sparrows; Movie review, 5 stars
by Anonymouse
04-Mar-2010
 

 

Song of Sparrows is an excellent new movie (2008) for the entire family.  You can watch a preview at Netflix at the link I provided or here. However, I recommend you don’t watch the trailer and just order the movie and make it spontaneous!

The movie is made by Majid Majidi one of Iran’s best Directors and Filmmakers who also made Children of Heaven that was nominated for an Oscar in 1997 in the Best Foreign Language Movie category.  That year (1997) the Oscar for Best Picture went to Life is Beautiful an Italian movie with English subtitles which was nominated in the same category as Children of Heaven so naturally it won both categories.  Had it not been for Life is Beautiful, Children of Heaven would’ve probably won the first ever Oscar for Iran because it was the stronger nominee.

I love Iranian movies and recommend you watch at least some of them to better understand life in today’s Iran, especially if you don’t get a chance to visit Iran.  Netflix has a good collection of Iranian movies and you can get them cheap and quick.  These movies will open your hearts and you’ll learn a thing or two in the process.  They’ll make you look deeper than trying to box your views and emotions into political formulas that are often misguided one way or another.

Iranian cinema does not have an equivalent to sequels to popular movies and Song of Sparrows is as close as it gets to a sequel to Children of Heaven.  Song of Sparrows is a movie about a good natured man who deeply loves his family and works hard to provide for them and keep them healthy and happy with his own quirks ;-)  It is a fulfilling movie with a script similar to Children of Heaven of a loving family.

Majid Majidi covers a lot in this movie and I mean a lot!  You can pretty much find everything; comedy, happiness, fun, drama, sadness and new ideas.  The movie includes great landscaping and beautiful scenery and the Cinematography is exquisite.  There are scenes like a group of motorcycles that I vaguely remember witnessing in person but did not know the full story until I watched this movie!

The movie has subtitles so you can watch it with anyone who either doesn’t speak or know enough Farsi for 1.5 hours of enjoyment.  I’m not certain all foreigners would like the movie like they’d like a shole zard and Ashoura story on Valentine’s Day but it is worth a try and certainly less risky!

 If you order it through Netflix you can also watch the movie instantly on your laptop but I don’t encourage you to watch it on your laptop’s small screen.  I recommend hooking up your laptop to your HD TV either via a computer monitor cable or a simple HDMI cable to enjoy the full experience. Or simply order the DVD and get it in a few days.

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//www.youtube.com/watch?v=r67r4l759RM&feature=related

Fast forward to 3:00 to start listening to his rendition!

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Tiger Woods mistress beauty pageant is Wednesday March 10th!

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Howard Stern

by I Have a Crush on Alex Trebek on

He is very funny! I love most of his stuff. I think it was a very good idea to have a TW mistress beauty pageant. When is/was that?


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I had finches when I was a kid.

by Anonymouse on

Marge jaan I think Finches are mostly found in warmer weathers, like South America or southern hemisphere.  When I was a kid my father bought me some finches and love birds.  The love birds made a lot of noise and one day I "freed" them! 

But I kept the finches and really loved them.  They were so small yet beautiful.  I fed them arzan (bird seed) and one day I wanted to feed them something "better" so I put a few cooked rice in their cage.  Just a few hours later when I looked at them (I had 2) they were dead and that made me sad and mad.  How stupid could I be?! Feeding finches chelo kabob!

I think the title of this movie is based on the effect that a sparrow family made on this good natured father in one scene.  It was a good family sparrow, not a cheating sparrow like Tiger Woods!

BTW did you listen to Howard Stern's bashing of TW's apology? It was so funny. He said TW's apology was like a jewish kid's bar-mitzvah where he'd cite Torah or in TW's case budah!  (In a loud and memorizing tone) The book of torah (budah) teaches me to be good  .... and I promise that I will not have sex until I marry ... and if I desire sex I will masturbate several times a day in my bedroom .... I will pray every day because I know ....

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Great review. I think sparrow is perfect Iranian bird

by I Have a Crush on Alex Trebek on

sparrows come in lots of varieties. they have a beautiful song, but they are pretty much ignored by most people because they don't stand out like more colorful finches, they are cousins I think. 

what they lack in color they make up in their song. they are also very talkative and they love to settle into groups as the days open and close. while gathering, they love to sing sing sing and chat chat chat! i love this title.

thanks anonymouse! 


Anonymouse

Thank you guys let me know what you think after watching it.

by Anonymouse on

If you get a chance let me know if you liked the movie.

DK jaan yes I remember hearing about it but looks like it is a new release on DVD. Certainly worth watching.

Faramarz jaan I didn't watch any trailers and it was very good.  It's ok if you watched the trailers, it's still kosher!

Marge jaan there are a few good movies about Iraq and Afghanistan. Heiran is one new Afghan themed movie and Baran is a 2001 movie from Majid Majidi same director as this blog and both are beautiful yet heart wrenching.  I don't remember any Iraq themed movie on top of my head but saw Voices of Iraq in 2004 where they gave 150 camcorders to Iraqis so they can take video of what they saw around themselves.  It was very good except they shook the cameras so much that you'd get a headache.  Otherwise you saw what Iraqis would see. 

RW jaan it's a good movie.

Abarmard jaan it's a good movie to own!

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Abarmard

Just bought it

by Abarmard on

I am waiting to find time to watch it. Thanks.


Red Wine

I will watch it this weekend

by Red Wine on

I will watch it this weekend ... Thank you for your review :=) .


Faramarz

آواز ِ گنجشك ها

Faramarz


Thanks Anonymouse for the clips and the review.

This movie is definitely on my list to watch. I watched all the trailers despite your advice! I liked his Turkish accent and the tender moments between him and his wife, Narges. The invitation to the rooftop was really funny!

The rooftops in Iran during the hot summer months were quite eventful. When I was a kid, we used to go on the roof at nights and quietly spy on our neighbors' extra-curricular activities!


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There's A Movie called "The Dreams of Sparrows": IRaN? War

by I Have a Crush on Alex Trebek on

I'm not sure if that's right. It's about the mental hospitals in Baghdad after the bombing and invasion. They were basically swimming in trash soup. They still are. Who cares! They're free! Hopefully this can happen to Iran soon, right?


Darius Kadivar

Great Review Anonymouse Jaan

by Darius Kadivar on

I didn't see this one yet although it made alot of headlines after it won the Silver Bear in Berlin for its leading actor.

Look forward to renting the DVD.

Thanks for the Review.

DK