The Hawks and the Sparrows

The Hawks and the Sparrows

Directed by Pier Paolo Pasolini • 1966 • Italy
Starring Totò, Ninetto Davoli, Femi Benussi

While wandering the countryside, a pair of father-and-son vagabonds (played respectively by Italian cinema legend Totò, in his final major film role, and Ninetto Davoli) happen upon a talking crow who spouts philosophy and launches them on a freewheeling picaresque through time, space, and the margins of a rapidly modernizing Italy. A comic Marxist fable that balances heady ideas about religion, poverty, and class struggle with irreverent slapstick sight gags, THE HAWKS AND THE SPARROWS finds Pasolini at his lightest yet as stingingly subversive as ever.

The Hawks and the Sparrows
  • The Hawks and the Sparrows

    Directed by Pier Paolo Pasolini • 1966 • Italy
    Starring Totò, Ninetto Davoli, Femi Benussi

    While wandering the countryside, a pair of father-and-son vagabonds (played respectively by Italian cinema legend Totò, in his final major film role, and Ninetto Davoli) happen upon a talking crow who spou...

Extras

  • Totò at the Circus

    This deleted scene from THE HAWKS AND THE SPARROWS features the film’s lead actor Totò and includes the dialogue that Pasolini had planned fo record for the scene.

  • Ninetto the Messenger

    In this documentary, which was directed by Jean-André Fieschi and aired on French television in 1997, actor Ninetto Davoli discusses his collaboration with Pasolini, whom he met in the early 1960s.