"Completed in 1980 yet unreleased anywhere until last year, Migrating Sparrows is a visual and dramatic tour-de-force that recounts a long night spent in a second-class train traveling through Georgia. Shot in B&W 'Scope-even though most of the action is set in a train compartment-the film includes a bizarre assortment of characters: suspicious-looking peasants, a pretty girl somewhat mysteriously traveling alone, an unshaven, burly man who carries a tame sparrow underneath his jacket. The center of attention, however, is a dapper-looking gentleman who claims he's an actor and has been all over the world; the bird-keeper finally calls his bluff, and the two have a knockdown fist fight until the guards separate them. The next day, we see both get off at the same station to resume their battle once again." (Richard Peña) Though Migrating Sparrows is succinctly scripted, the rollicking film has a freewheeling structure that creates buoyancy rather than a clear story. Director Babluani, an advocate of philosophically based storytelling, had one point to make in his punchy first film: "Hostility, as a rule, is a deformed love."