Full Review | Original Score: 4/5 | Nov 17, 2011

At times funny, sad, poignant and suspenseful, Sparrows is a showcase for Majidi's masterful storytelling -- and Naji's superb acting.

| Original Score: 4/4 | Jun 12, 2009

At times tedious but ultimately beguiling, Song of Sparrows morphs from a sly dramedy about running a household into a fable about two ways of life (urban and rural) that can't coexist.

| Jun 12, 2009

The images in The Song of Sparrows have a poetic grace that's to be desired in storytelling.

| Original Score: 2.5/4 | May 28, 2009

Full Review | Original Score: 3/4 | May 15, 2009

It is somehow congenial to feel that we are watching a tale that could have been told elsewhere.

| May 6, 2009

Delicate and sturdy.

Full Review | Original Score: 3.5/4 | Apr 24, 2009

The Song of Sparrows is a sweet and uplifting humanistic fable that celebrates the joys of community and pastoral life over a harried and materialistic urban existence.

| Original Score: 3.5/4 | Apr 16, 2009

This is the fourth collaboration for Naji and Majidi, and the actor and director feed off each other creatively, pushing the boundaries of the characters each time.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Apr 9, 2009

A leisurely and lovely picture, well worth seeing.

| Apr 9, 2009

[Director] Majidi is a master director of tear-jerkers, and he proves true to form with Sparrows.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Apr 3, 2009

As unabashedly sentimental as The Song of Sparrows often becomes, this simple fable of a righteous man's relationship to his family, his community and most of all his faith has the force of conviction.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5 | Apr 2, 2009

A parable of corruption, catastrophe and eventual redemption. Mr. Majidi's tale wasn't meant to be timely, of course, but the shoe fits, and the film wears it well.

| Apr 2, 2009

While the film incorporates a touch of neo-realism, Iranian director Majid Majidi isn't aiming for miserablism; his beautifully austere morality tale is more a sun-parched version of a different well-known story.

| Original Score: B | Apr 2, 2009

The film is pleasingly meandering, till the more typically Majidian soulful and teary-eyed climax.

| Apr 1, 2009

It's a homily about the ethically and spiritually corrupting influence of the city, and of that milieu's capitalist ethos, straight out of an Industrial Revolution-era sermon.

| Mar 31, 2009

Majid Majidi's lyrical, gently comic The Song of Sparrows grounds its low-key humor in the realities of poor, semi-rural Iranian life.

| Original Score: 2.5/4 | Mar 29, 2009

The story, spiked with gentle humor, moves smoothly through the standard tropes of Iranian art house cinema.

Full Review | Oct 18, 2008

Beautifully crafted, often sentimental, sometimes humorous pic.

| Feb 13, 2008