Iranian filmmaker Majid Majidi has a wonderful visual style of storytelling. He is at the top of his game in his new film, The Song of Sparrows. I find it interesting in looking at my notes from the screening that I made very few notes about dialogue or plot, but many about the pictures that Majidi used in telling the story. Those pictures are as much a part of the story as the plot itself.

The film is a morality tale about the dangers of materialism. Karim works at an ostrich farm. He and his family lead a simple life, but it is satisfying. When his deaf daughter's hearing aid needs to be replaced, he goes into Teheran to find a replacement. When someone climbs on the back of his motorcycle, he stumbles into being a taxi service. This is very lucrative. He also discovers a construction site where he can bring home what they consider trash. Slowly, the additional money and the accumulation of his "treasures" change him. He becomes attached to the things he has. He loses his sense of generosity. Greed and materialism take hold of him. Eventually this materialism almost devours him—literally. Can he escape his attachment to goods and money to return to a happy life with his family?

The film is filled with wonderful visuals beginning with the opening shot closeup of an ostrich through the closing shot of an ostrich doing his mating dance. Ostriches are funny looking creatures (especially doing their dance) and we know that this will be a humorous film. The film involves other shots that reflect and emphasize what is happening in Karim's life. We are invited to consider the new life that has come to the cistern near his house and compare that to how spiritually dead Karim has become. We see Karim's rudeness and stinginess with his neighbors, and see his neighbors gathered around his bed praying for his recovery.

Karim's moral descent seems to be tied to the city and modern life. Majidi says, however, "I do not mean that I am opposed to modernity, per se. Modernization should be at the service of humanity, yet people find themselves conquered by it. The result is that with each passing day we are becoming more distant from our own human values. ... All of our values—including friendship, morality and beauty—become less important day by day. In opposition to this process, my aim was to say that we must return to our human essence or else face a major disaster in the future."

The Song of Sparrows certainly focuses on how easy it is to lose one's values—the very things in which our lives find true happiness. It is easy to be seduced by quick money or more and more possessions. Karim ridicules his son for dreams of becoming a millionaire by raising and selling goldfish, but his own pursuit of wealth is far more unhealthy. His son can be excused for youthful exuberance, but Karim should have developed a bit of wisdom by now. By losing focus on the things that had given him a good life in search of something better, he nearly loses everything. We all face that danger if we forget the values that make our lives full.