The Song of Sparrows (2008)

 

The Song of Sparrows is a  Iranian movie directed by Majid Majidi.

Majid Majidi with the help of this movie takes you on a beautiful journey of life. It portrays a poor Iranian family, their love and commitment towards each other, their aspirations and hopes and their struggles with life. There is the presence of a quite dignity, traditions and warmth.

Set in rural Iran, the movie traces the life of Karim ( Reza Najie), an ostrich farmer. He lives with wife Narges ( Maryam akbari) and his 3 children (2 daughters and 1 son).  One day an ostrich escapes under his nose. Karim gives it a chase but the ostrich eludes him and this episode costs him his job.

Sometimes when things go wrong, it goes wrong all the way. Karim's daughter Haniyeh damages her hearing aid which cannot be repaired. A new one costs a lot of money which is scare with Karim.

Karim rides his motor cycle to Tehran to replace his daughter's hearing aid and get mistaken for a cabbie. He lands up giving a ride to a business man and in turn discovering a lucrative earning opportunity. Thus begins Karim's new life. He puts in a lot of enthusiasm in his work and fights against various hurdles. On the side he regularly starts picking up junk from the city and bring it home. It begins with an antennae for the television, a frame for the window and the pile keeps growing. 

Karim's son Hussein ( Hamed Agazi) is obsessed with growing fish. He and his friends clean up the community pool for the purpose. He is convinced that he can become a millionaire that way.

The city life catched up with Karim and he starts to get possessive and greedy....

This movie has a soul and an absolutely realistic performance.

* Was nominated for the Berlin International film Festival

* Iran representative for best foreign language film in the 81st academy awards.

Verdict :- 9/10. One of the best movies that I have watched in the recent times.

Adam (2009)

I came across this movie accidentally while scouting the list of available movies on board a long flight. There was something catchy about the excerpt and I decided to watch it.

Adam is a charming romantic movie written and directed by Max Mayer.  This is a typical boy meet a girl kind of a movie but is likely to leave a lump in your throat.  

Many a times in life you come across couples that are totally unusual but absolutely in harmony with each other. 

Adam is the story of one such couple called Adam (hugh Dancy ) and Beth ( Rose Byrne ). 

Blessed with good looks, an engineering degree, decent job and a upper west side apartment,  Adam could be any women's dream boy. But Adam suffers from Asperger's syndrome, a form of autism which has severely effected his social skills.

Adam lives with his father and leads a quite life. After the death of his father, Adam is left alone expect his only friend harlan ( Frankie Faison) who is truck driver and his obsession for astrophysics.

Adam has a new neighbor in Beth who is a school teacher and gradually a friendship develop between the two. Initially Beth is totally perplexed and wary about Adam's behavior . But gradually Adam brings her up to speed wtih  Asperger's syndrome ( It's little strange though that School teacher Beth seemed oblivious to autism ) and his limitations. slowly Beth figures out how to deal with Adam whose brains are incapable of feeling empathy and hence begins the endearing romance.





There is a bit of complications thrown in the form of Beth's parents Rebecca and Marty ( Amy Irving and Peter Gallaghar ). They get worked up about Beth breaking off with a suitable boy and is going around with Adam. There is a court room situation involving the parents that is slightly cut off from the central theme of the movie.

The movie skims through the issues faced by people with Asperger's syndrome but does not dive deep into. Instead, the focus is on relationships. Hugh is British and Rose an Australian. But both had the perfect accent and looked good together.

"Adam" won a prize at the 2009 Sundance film festival .

Verdict :- 6/10  A feel good movie and endearing lead actors.