Written and directed by Pier Paolo Pasolini and starring Totò and Ninetto Davoli, The hawks and the sparrows is Totò’s last leading role.
Marcello and his son Ninetto wander through the outskirts and countryside around Rome, where they meet a crow, symbol of a left-wing intellectual. The bird tells the story of two Franciscan friars sent by Saint Francis of Assisi to evangelize hawks and sparrows, but they fail to end their rivalry.
As their journey continues, father and son move through a visionary world filled with surreal encounters and social contrasts: hostile landowners, a desperately poor family, travelling performers, a dentists’ convention, and a businessman who threatens Marcello over his debts.
After attending the funeral of Palmiro Togliatti and meeting a prostitute, exhausted by the crow’s moralizing speeches, they kill it and eat it.