Regent Releasing has opened THE SONG OF SPARROWS, the new film from Iranian master Majid Majidi, director of Best Foreign Language Oscar nominee CHILDREN OF HEAVEN, as well as THE COLOR OF PARADISE and BARAN today, Friday, April 10 at Laemmle’s Music Hall in Beverly Hills and Laemmle’s Town Center 5 in Encino. Winner of the Silver Bear for Best Actor at the Berlin International Film Festival and Iran’s selection for Best Foreign Language Film for the 2008 Academy Awards, Majidi’s luminous and humorous tale of morality and redemption was initially opened on Friday, April 3 in New York at Lincoln Plaza Cinemas. The New York and Los Angeles releases will be followed by a national rollout.
This deeply humanistic story opens in stunning pastoral Iran, where an unassuming and underprivileged ostrich farmer, Karim (Berlin winner Reza Naji), fights to support his family. In a string of bad luck, Karim’s daughter loses her expensive hearing aid and Karim suddenly loses his job when an ostrich comically escapes from the farm. Fortunately, his financial woes are short-lived when Karim stumbles upon an easy way to make money in bustling Tehran: he inadvertently gives a man a ride on the back of his motorbike in return for a fee which prompts him to continue his taxi service on a regular basis. Every day Karim rides into town to ferry passengers through the gridlocked streets before he brings back home all kinds of useless rummage – and soon finds himself entangled in a world of hustle, materialism and greed. When Karim’s relationships with family and friends come close to the breaking point, he must find a way to reconcile his new life with the old. With a cast of wonderful non-professional child actors and a haunting score by Grammy-nominated composer and master sitar player Hossein Alizadeh, THE SONG OF SPARROWS is Majidi’s latest gem in his collection of timeless fables.
Writer-director Majid Majidi is the only Iranian director ever nominated for an Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film. CHILDREN OF HEAVEN, THE COLOR OF PARADISE AND BARAN were critical hits in the US and abroad. Majidi was one of five international film directors invited to create a documentary short film to introduce the city of Beijing for the 2008 Olympics. Grammy-nominated composer-musician Hossein Alizadeh, a master tar and setar player, provides the haunting score for the film.