Director: Majid Majidi
Cast: Reza Naji, Hamid Aghazi, Kamran Dehghan, Maryam Akbari, Hamid Aghazi
Avaze Gonjeshkha (The Song of Sparrows) is a 2008 Iranian drama film directed by Majid Majidi, following a modest rural man whose unexpected plunge into the chaos of Tehran forces him to confront the widening chasm between village simplicity and city life — and the cost of losing oneself in it.
What is Avaze Gonjeshkha about?
Karim is a hardworking ostrich farmer living with his family in a quiet desert village outside Tehran. When his daughter's hearing aid is accidentally destroyed just before her critical school exams, the financial pressure falls squarely on him. He travels to the capital on his motorcycle to replace it, but the city overwhelms and seduces him in equal measure. Small windfalls and odd jobs draw him deeper into Tehran's frantic rhythms. As weeks pass, the man who left home committed to a single errand begins to drift — chasing opportunity, pride, and a kind of freedom he never knew he wanted. Back in the village, his family waits, and the gap between the two worlds quietly widens.
The K-Time take
Majidi films Karim's transformation with characteristic restraint, letting long silences and physical detail carry the emotional weight. Reza Naji's performance is extraordinarily lived-in — every creaking motorbike ride and market negotiation feels fully inhabited. The film is less a parable about corruption than an honest portrait of a good man testing his own limits.
Cast & crew
Reza Naji leads as Karim, delivering a performance of quiet authority that won him the Silver Bear for Best Actor at the Berlin International Film Festival. Majid Majidi, the acclaimed director behind Children of Heaven and The Color of Paradise, wrote and directed the film. Supporting cast includes Hamid Aghazi, Kamran Dehghan, and Maryam Akbari.
Context & significance
Majidi has long been the filmmaker most closely associated with Iranian humanist cinema abroad, and Avaze Gonjeshkha sits at the heart of that tradition. For diaspora viewers, the film resonates on multiple registers: it captures the rural-to-urban migration that shaped a generation of Iranian families, and the cultural disorientation that comes with it — feelings that echo in the lives of those who later crossed much wider borders. The Tehran depicted here is loud, indifferent, and full of possibility, a city that neither welcomes nor rejects but simply moves. This push-and-pull is universal enough to need no translation, but specific enough to feel like home.
Where & how to watch
Avaze Gonjeshkha is available now on K-Time with original Persian audio. Stream it on your TV, phone, or browser — no VPN needed, no geo-blocking, no extra download required. Start watching and cancel anytime.