The Circle
(2000)
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Banned in Iran, Jafar Panahi's THE CIRCLE is set almost entirely on the busy streets of Tehran - a place where women are restricted by numerous laws, including a repressive dress code, and can only travel accompanied by a man. The beginning of the film focuses on two women, Arezou (Mariam Palvin Almani) and Nargess (Nargess Mamizadeh), who have been given temporary leave from prison and have no intension of returning. They attempt to flee to Nargess's hometown, which she claims is as beautiful as a Van Gogh painting, but are deterred by police. Meanwhile, their friend Pari (Fereshteh Sadr Orfani), who has just escaped from jail, is pregnant and needs an abortion. Panahi's lens continues to shift from one woman to another as this eye-opening tale circles back on itself. More serious in tone than the director's brilliant, lighthearted debut, THE WHITE BALLOON, THE CIRCLE shares many of its technical and narrative flourishes, making it another example of Iranian cinema at its best and most politically aware. |
Iranian director Jafar Panahi's neorealist variation on La Ronde is a far cry from the optimistic charm of The White Balloon. While Max Ophül's 1950 masterpiece was a merry-go-round of romance, Panahi's award-winning movie highlights such contentious issues as divorce, abortion and prostitution to demonstrate the universal discrimination against women in modern Iranian society. An almost Hitchcockian tension develops as eight women suffer male oppression in everyday scenarios ranging from childbirth to buying a bus ticket, all in the space of 24 hours. Bahram Badakhshani's raw, hand-held camerawork captures the backstreet ambience of durability and despair. But it's the courageous naturalism of the non-professional cast that provides the drama with its poignancy and power.