Plot Details: This opinion reveals major details about the movie's plot.

Interested in what cinema looks like in a Muslim country? Try this internationally acclaimed offering from Iran. It will give you plenty to think about, but it's entertaining as well.

Historical Background: Iranian director Jafar Panahi, born July 11th, 1960 in Mianeh, Iran, learned filmmaking as an assistant to Abbas Kiarostam (see, for example, Taste of Cherry), working with him on Through the Olive Trees. The Circle was Panahi's third film, but the first with strong political undercurrents. His debut film was The White Balloon (for which his mentor, Kiarostam, wrote the script) and his second The Mirror. Both earned some international attention, but The Circle is a significant progression in Panahi's level of filmmaking skill.

Panahi has been so badly treated by customs official on those occasions when he has come to America – for film festivals, for example – that he has stopped coming. The New York Film Festival managed to obtain a special waiver for him so he could attend a screening of The Circle one year, but once G.W. Bush was elected, waivers were no longer permitted. Panahi had a flight change, on one occasion, at JFK International Airport during a trip to South America and when he refused to submit to fingerprinting and a mug shot, he was shackled to a bench in the waiting room for twelve hours. That is American hospitality under the new paranoia.

The Story: In an Iranian hospital, a nurse, speaking through a window, tells an elderly woman that her daughter has just given birth to a girl. The elderly woman asks if there isn't a mistake because the ultrasound had indicated it would be a boy. She adds that the new mother's in-laws may disown her when they discover she's had a girl. She then goes downstairs to report the bad news to another daughter.

As this second daughter leaves the hospital, she passes two women huddled around a phone booth, as the film now transitions to the story of these two. The pair has recently gotten out of prison and they're trying to come up with a viable plan. One is a teenager, Nargess (Nargess Mamizadeh), whose main ambition is to return to her idyllic small rural town, but, without a proper I.D., she cannot purchase the requisite bus ticket. The other, Arezou (Mariam Palvin Almani), a bit older and with an evident bruise under her eye, rents herself to a man (off camera) in order to raise money to help her friend. Arezou, however, decides not to go with her friend, preferring her chances on the city streets. Even Nargress is ambivalent, getting on and off the bus repeatedly, apparently wary of being rearrested if she travels without proper (male) escort.

When the two become separated, Nargess tries to look up another former prisoner, Pari (Fereshteh Sadr Orfani), released that same day. They miss connection, but we fallow Pari's story for a while. Pari is trying to escape from her family, with whom she is a virtual prisoner. Two of her brothers try to intimidate her into submissiveness. Pari, needing a place to stay, seeks the help of another former prisoner, Elham (Elham Saboktakin), released some time ago. Elham, however, has since married a respectable physician and wants nothing to do with Pari, since Elham's husband knows nothing about her past. Pari is left to wander the streets.

Another women, also wandering the streets, is a desperate mother (Fatemeh Naghavi), who wants to abandon her infant because she cannot afford to raise it. She dresses the girl up as prettily as possible and leaves her to be found by strangers. Another girl is a tough young prostitute (Mojhan Faramarzi). She is arrested and as she is escorted into a holding cell, the camera pans around the cell, we see virtually all of the film's major characters have come together there – in jail. Moments later, a guard, peering through a small aperture, calls the name of the woman who gave birth in the opening scene, though she is apparently in the adjacent cell instead. The story has thus come full circle.

Themes: Obviously, Jafar Panahi's theme, here, is the plight of women in Muslim countries. This story is not so much about feminism as basic humanism. The gender of the featured characters may be important as a causative factor in their treatment, but it's really irrelevant to the depth of concern that ought to be engendered in compassionate viewers. Iran is far from the most conservative, fundamentalist, or restrictive of Muslim countries. The injustices depicted in The Circle, though grotesque, are less horrifying than the kind to which women were subjected in Afghanistan under the Taliban, for example. Nevertheless, the restraints on the lives of these women, as depicted in this film, are palpable. Women in Iran are not allowed to smoke in public, travel without the sponsorship of a brother or husband, and are subject to harassment by both the police and stray men if out in public unaccompanied. Men and women are not allowed any physical contact whatsoever in public, even a handshake or a hug. Abortions are obviously not permitted nor are women in Iran permitted to succeed as single mothers. Prostitutes are subject to arrest but their male customers go free.

Panahi uses the traditional dark chador worn by Iranian women in public in an interesting symbolic way in The Circle, combining its traditional meaning of propriety and respectability with the idea of invisibility – an all too apt expression of the role of women in Muslim societies. The cross-section of women presented to us by Panahi are generally very realistic characters, with a believable mix of positive qualities and short-comings. Panahi gives us no reason to attribute the mistreatment of these women to something that they have brought on themselves by their own deficiencies or mistakes. Not all Iranian women are pleased, however, with Panahi's representation in The Circle of their status as women in Iran, some arguing that it fails to depict the courageous efforts and successes that many Iranian women have achieved as they struggle to overcome their state of oppression.

Production Values: I found the script's design quite appealing, though it may frustrate some American viewers used to more straightforward narrative progression. The film is built around what is really a series of vignettes, loosely interrelated. The narrative slides gracefully from one story to the next, without glaringly obvious demarcations. Panahi is careful about how much he reveals about the various characters. Some points of natural interest are left to the viewer's imagination. For example, we are never told exactly why two of the women were in prison or how they got out. (Did their sentences expire? Did they escape? Were they paroled?) Like many other international directors, Panahi is willing to trust his audience to view the story actively and work out some of the implied details. Part of the momentum of the narrative comes from our curiosity about these women.

Visually, this is an appealing film. There's nothing arty about its look, just clear, crisp photography that reveals detail nicely. Panahi's camera typically glides smoothly and he sometimes uses relatively long takes.

Only two of the performers were professional actresses: Fereshteh Sadr Orfani, who played Pari, and Fatemeh Naghavi, who played the mother who abandoned her infant. Panahi stated that he paid no attention to professional status in choosing his performers, preferring to select women who conformed to his conception for each part. The performances are all solid and believable.

Bottom-Line: The Circle is banned in Iran, obviously for its political implications, since it has no sex, nudity, violence, or profanity – indeed, nothing that would interest censors in the United States or European countries. Here in America it would probably be about PG-13 is it were rated. The running time is 89 minutes and the film is in Farsi with English subtitles. My copy of this film is VHS, but I understand that the DVD version has an interesting extra – a twenty-minute interview with Panahi about the making of the film, which took just 52 days. I recommend this film especially for viewers interested in women's rights and the status of cinema in the Muslim world. By reputation, this is one of the best Iranian films made to date.


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You might want to check out these other excellent films from Iran:

Taste of Cherry
The White Balloon

Recommended: Yes

Video Occasion: Better than Watching TV
Suitability For Children: Suitable for Children Age 13 and Older