Bleak, yet powerful, The Circle offers a searing indictment of the oppressive conditions experienced by women in Iran. Read critic reviews
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Movie Info
Two women in Iran are given temporary leave from prison and attempt to flee to one of the women's hometown, but are caught by police. Meanwhile, one of their friends who has escaped jail is pregnant and in need of an abortion. "The Circle" tells the story of each of these women by shifting back and forth between them.
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Genre: Drama
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Original Language: Persian
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Director: Jafar Panahi
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Producer: Gary Howsam, Jafar Panahi
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Writer: Kambuzia Partovi
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Release Date (Theaters): original
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Box Office (Gross USA): $673.8K
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Runtime:
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Distributor: Winstar Cinema
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Production Co: Jafar Panahi Film Productions, Mikado Film S.r.l., Lumière & Company
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Sound Mix: Mono
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Aspect Ratio: Flat (1.85:1)
Cast & Crew
Critic Reviews for The Circle
Audience Reviews for The Circle
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Simultaneous to Marziyeh Meshkini's symbolic masterpiece <i>The Day I Became a Woman</i> (2000), Panahi applies his trademark, engrossing style of striking realism, lively urban environments and hypnotic tracking shots to direct this furious denunciation against gender inequalities against women in contemporary Iran, a society that prevents women from having an abortion, that prevents them from making a shocking amount of formalities without police authorization, that forbids them to travel without male company, that makes women endure physical, psychological and domestic violence, that forbids them to accept car rides from men and to buy tickets alone, and that makes them endure unfair marital regulations that ultimately increase paternalistic and chauvinist tendencies inside the families and empowers men to legally ask for a divorce for inhuman reasons. <i>Dayereh</i> is credited with having the narrative structure of Max Ophüls' <i>La Ronde</i> (1950), given that, as literally suggested by the title, the film comes full circle. Besides, all of the events are interconnected, similarly to Meshkini's testament, but instead of being separated vignettes, they are connected in real time in the lapse of one single day. Perhaps this is a way to state that these kinds of injustice can be seen "everywhere you turn your head". Panahi scores again with his most straightforward commentary directed for worldwide masses, especially aimed at similarly sexist and oppressive societies around the world... And with the abandoned little girl featured in this film, we might just have a reason of why Mina's mother in <i>The Mirror</i> (1997) never came to pick her daughter from school... 97/100
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This film is very daring coming from the country it was made, so much so it was banned there, a simple story of various women trying to escape there lives in a country where women really dont have rights, and this film was made by a man himself, so its interesting how the charactors get there say. although at times its a little dull in places, and to westerners and people in countries where women dont have this put upon them, it might not seem much of a film, but it is very relevent there and should be seen in that respect, so dont let the structure of story and story take any thing away.
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Undoubtedly,it's one of the top 10 films of 2000.Justification knows no boundaries and female,psychological suffering is excellently displayed on this film.Real drama,nothing fake to cover the truth.Panahi eluding his road to "sacrilegious perdition" contrary to the customs of Iran,we can say with certainty it's a universal journey.A journey disastrous through the looking glass of a handful of women.
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Be in the right mood to see this. It is one of umpteen depictions of women coping in fundamentalist Islamic states but it happens to be one of the better ones.
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