The Circle Movie Review 2000

Arezou (Almani) and Nargess (Mamizadeh) have just been released from an Iranian prison. Arezou apparently prostitutes herself (you don't see anything) in order to get the money for Nargess to travel back to her village, only because of Iranian law the girl can't travel without permission from a male. Nargress leads to two other former inmates who suffer because of their female identity and eventually everything circles back to the prison again. The film was banned in Iran because it makes the ceaseless difficulties of being born female in such a society very clear. Farsi with subtitles.

Distribution

Wellspring Media, A Division of Genius Products, Inc., 2230 Broadway, Santa Monica, CA 90904, Phone: (310)453-1222, Fax: (310)453-0074, URL: http://www.wellspring.com

Available on VHS, DVD
Running time 91 minutes.
Originally from Iranian.

Cast and Crew

Genres

Women in Prison, Pregnant Pauses, Women

Screenplay

Kambozia Partovi

Cast

Mariam Palvin Almani, Nargess Mamizadeh, Fereshteh Sadr Orfani, Fatemeh Naghavi, Monir Arab, Elham Saboktakin, Mojhan Faramarzi

Cinematography

Bahram Badakhshami

Director

Jafar Panahi

Other

Mehdi Dejbodi, Jafar Panahi, Iraj Raminfar

Producer

Jafar Panahi, Mikado/Lumiere & Company, Winstar Cinema

Awards

Venice Film Fest. 2000: Film.