APSA for Best Performance by an Actor

Reza Naji for ‘Avaze Gonjeshk-Ha’ (The Song Of The Sparrows)
Islamic Republic of Iran

Born in Iran in 1942, Reza Naji is an award-winning Iranian actor and an iconic figure of Iranian cinema. Reza started his career as a teenager in theatre with his first film role in Children of Heaven in 1997. Directed by Majid Majidi, the role required an Azeri accent and Reza was chosen by Majidi from 2500 actors who tested for the role. Since then, Reza has played numerous roles in Iranian films, including Sargije (2007) and The Willow Tree (2005). The Song of the Sparrows is his latest collaboration with director Majid Majidi and has garnered Reza with the 2008 Silver Berlin Bear for Best Actor from the Berlin International Film Festival. 

“I thought this was a wonderful film on many levels. It's a very, very fine film beautifully acted by the lead man who avoided every trap he could have fallen into in.” - Bruce Beresford (Jury President)

“Very realistic. You couldn’t tell if he was an actor or the actual person and that itself is a great skill and craft.” - Hanna Lee (Jury Member)

“What was fantastic about his performance was that being a father I could very often identify with what was going on in his mind without it actually being played out in a screenplay.  I thought his relationship with his deaf daughter was so compassionately done that it really kind of elevated your interest in the character to a point that you were glued to the plot which was very plain and straight forward and not that unusual but yet his performance enabled you to kind of get behind his perceptions of a family and that’s really what the movie was about.” - Richard Rothschild (Jury Member)

“I probably have already seen four movies played by this actor.  He is, among many Iranian actors, a very professional one, and is so good that people would think he himself is really a farmer.  There are many famous actors in Iran who are good at playing the role of a farmer in a movie, yet he is the unique and the most outstanding one in that he does not only show the audience that a farmer is simply a person who is very hardworking and toils on his land because he is poverty stricken, and who may be low in education, but The Song of Sparrows has also demonstrated to the audience, through the actor, that a farmer can have his own desire, can have his own wisdom, can have his own calculation and plan, therefore can also be as smart or shrewd in some way.”  - Professor Zheng Dongtian (Jury Member)