Song of the Sparrows

You better feel sorry for all those fish.

The Song of the Sparrows wasn’t quite what I expected it to be. I expected something a little…larger, and I feel kind of stupid for feeling that. It probably comes from growing up as an American and watching American cinema, where the actions are big and the stars are (for the most part) larger than life. Song of the Sparrows isn’t larger than life; it IS life, without any magic creatures, robots from space, or even complicated and convoluted dramatic subplots. The story is simple; an ostrich ranch hand (I guess that’s what we could call the position) gets fired and has to find a new way to provide for his family. His son wants to do the impossible, even against his father’s wishes, and manages to do so, saving his father from a downward spiral in the process.

I loved this movie. Like I said, the premise is so simple and the story is so universal, but the director doesn’t make it amazing by throwing in dramatic subplots or expensive action scenes; he just does what he does well and makes us care by really making these characters familiar to us and our lives. In fact, the father’s subplot even reminded me of my dad, who had to find a way to support me and my brother after my mom died and he was let go from his job. While Karim’s plight is simply driven by the loss of his job, the parallel between his struggles with finding work and keeping his family supported and the same obstacles my dad faced. Even Karim’s injuries related to my dad’s arthritis, which set in shortly after my dad invested everything he had the go-kart track he now owns.

This is how the director connects to us; this story is familiar not because every other movie we’ve seen has it, but because we have lived this story. We know where it is going not because we’ve watched other movies with the same story, but because we’ve lived those twists and turns before, or watched family members go through those twists and turns. That’s why this movie has been so successful in the international circuit, and that’s why I like it.