Jafar Panahi’s film begins in a maternity ward of a hospital, where the mother of Solmaz Gholami is upset to learn that her daughter has just given birth to a girl, even though the ultrasound indicated that the baby would be a boy. Worrying that her in-laws will force their son to divorce her daughter, she tells another daughter to call her uncles.
At the phone booth, she passes by three young women, including Arezou and Nargess, who have just escaped prison. The three of them are trying to come up with money so that they can go to Nargess’s home village. The third prisoner is immediately arrested, as she tries to pawn a gold chain, leaving just the two women. Nargess spots what she thinks is a landscape-painting of her hometown at a nearby shop and describes to Arezou the paradise awaiting them at the end of their bus journey. Arezou in the meantime finds enough money from an acquaintance to get Nargess a bus ticket, deciding not to go herself. The two of them separate.
At the bus station, however, Nargess can’t get on the bus, because it is being searched by the police, and she is afraid that she will be arrested again. Instead she tries to find another prisoner, Pari, who also snuck out of the prison that day. Pari’s father will not let her in the house, however, and just as Nargess leaves, Pari’s two brothers arrive, and angrily force their way into the house, in order to “talk” to their sister. Pari manages to escape, and eventually makes her way to a hospital where she finds Elham, another former prisoner who has hidden her past and is now a nurse, married to a doctor.
From her conversation with Elham, we learn that Pari is pregnant, but the father of her baby has been executed, and she has no one to approve her having an abortion. Elham, concerned about arousing suspicions about her own past, is reluctant to do anything to help her, so Pari is left to wander the streets at night. Without ID, she cannot get into a hotel. At a street corner, she finds a mother trying to abandon her little girl, hoping that she will find a better life with a family. She continues wandering the street.
The Circle (Persian: Dayereh) is a 2000 Iranian drama film produced and directed by Jafar Panahi that criticizes the treatment of women in Iran. The film has won several awards, including the Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival in 2000, but it is banned in Iran.
The Circle – Dayereh (2000)
Directed by: Jafar Panahi
Starring: Nargess Mamizadeh, Maryiam Palvin Almani, Mojgan Faramarzi, Elham Saboktakin, Monir Arab, Solmaz Panahi, Fereshteh Sadre Orafaee, Fatemeh Naghavi
Screenplay by: Kambuzia Partovi
Cinematography by: Bahram Badakshani
Film Editing by: Jafar Panahi
Costume Design by: Iraj Raminfar
Set Decoration by: Vajid Allah Fariborzi
Makeup Department: Hemasseh Malaki
Music by: Ali Zahmatkesh
Distributed by: Mikado Film (Italy)
Release Date: September 8, 2000 (Italy)
Visits: 65
