The Crows Egg

The Crow's Egg turns something as mundane as a quest for a pizza into breathless adventure. Two boys living in poverty in an Indian slum are known as Big and Little Crow's Egg, due to their habit of climbing trees to get at the delicious yolk inside the eggs left behind. When their local vacant lot play-area gets bought up and converted into a new Pizza Spot outlet right on the edge of their slum, the two boys are upset, and then intrigued. Here is a type of food they have never seen before, a stringy-cheese confection enjoyed by the Superstar Simbhu himself — and they must have it!

This simple premise offers up far more twists and turns than you would expect. The cheerful optimism of the two lead boys injects a great deal of energy into the plot, and the beautiful background music helps carry us along for the ride with a smile. While The Crow's Egg consists of nothing more than a series of daily life vignettes, its setting in India, where the wretchedly poor and fabulously wealthy live side-by-side but strictly segregated, provides a constant sharp tension that is alternately fascinating and sad.

Despite the occasionally wandering plot-line and a few unnecessary scenes, The Crow's Egg is an enjoyable but confronting look into the life of two impoverished boys in India.