The Circle
The Circle ★★ Dayereh 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. 91m/C VHS, DVD . IA Mariam Palvin Almani, Nargess Mamizadeh, Fereshteh Sadr Orfani, Fatemeh Naghavi, Monir Arab, Elham Saboktakin, Mojhan Faramarzi; D: Jafar Panahi; W: Kambuzia Partovi; C: Bahram Badakhshami. Venice Film Fest. '00: Film.