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Circle, The

Universal acclaim
Based on 28 critic reviews
How did we calculate this?
Based on 4 votes
Read user comments
Rate this movie >
Movie Info
Genre(s): Drama
Written by: Kambuzia Partovi
Directed by: Jafar Panahi
Release Date:
Theatrical: April 13, 2001
DVD: December 18, 2001
Running Time: 90 minutes, Color
Origin: Iran / Italy
Language(s): Farsi (with English subtitles)
Summary
RATING: Not Rated
Starring Maryiam Palvin Almani, Nargess Mamizadeh, Fereshteh Sadr Orfani, Monir Arab, Elham Saboktakin, Fatemeh Naghavi, and Mojgan Faramarzi
This film tells the intertwining stories of a group of seven Iranian women, each of whom has a criminal past due to societal prejudices and oppressive laws.
What The Critics Said
All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...
Mr. Showbiz Michael Atkinson
Naturalistic, gritty, and unrelenting.
Philadelphia Inquirer Steven Rea
Quiet, rageful indictment of a two-tiered Islamic society.
Entertainment Weekly Lisa Schwarzbaum
Circles the heart of noisy, modern Tehran with an informal, documentary-like freedom that is thrilling in its naturalism.
Read Full Review >The New York Times Dana Stevens
The political implications of the film are manifest, as is the quiet courage of making it.
Read Full Review >Los Angeles Times Kenneth Turan
Restrained yet powerful, devastating in its emotional effects.
Read Full Review >Wall Street Journal Joe Morgenstern
A stunning drama about the desperate state of women in Iran.
LA Weekly David Chute
A triumph of invisible craftsmanship that embraces so much specific detail that none of the women ever comes across as an emblem or an abstraction.
Read Full Review >Variety Deborah Young
Both fascinates and horrifies with its bold assertions about what it means to be a woman under a cruel, institutionalized patriarchy.
Read Full Review >Washington Post Desson Thomson
A memorable and devastating indictment of the oppression facing many women in Iran.
Read Full Review >Film.com Peter Brunette
The fact that this film, so sensitive to woman's plight, was made by a man is perhaps cause for a little hope.
Read Full Review >Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert
The Circle is all the more depressing when we consider that Iran is relatively liberal compared to, say, Afghanistan under the Taliban.
Read Full Review >Boston Globe Jay Carr
Such moral outrage, apart from the artistry in which it is embedded, tells us that the forces of change are stirring in Iran.
Chicago Tribune Michael Wilmington
Panahi's simplicity accentuates the movie's power: its sense of life caught unobserved.
Read Full Review >Seattle Post-Intelligencer Sean Axmaker
A mix of the poetic and the polemic, the film is oddly abstract and untethered.
Read Full Review >TV Guide Ken Fox
This tightly structured, often exciting film is among the boldest in a series of increasingly explicit movies.
Read Full Review >Salon.com Stephanie Zacharek
The picture is so dramatically textured that you feel something's happening every minute.
Read Full Review >Village Voice J. Hoberman
Panahi is a maestro of anxiety. Whatever its political significance, this is a dark, sustained, and wrenching film.
Read Full Review >Washington Post Stephen Hunter
In its brisk way, it's a devastating piece of work, and very brave too.
Read Full Review >Austin Chronicle Marc Savlov
There's no denying it's a tragic film from start to finish, but equally undeniable is the endless stoicism displayed by the women, and Panahi's crisp, meandering direction.
Read Full Review >San Francisco Chronicle Wesley Morris
It's a startling, speedy, gracefully executed indictment.
Read Full Review >Charlotte Observer Lawrence Toppman
A Kafkaesque series of interwoven stories that depict the hopeless lives half the populace there (Iran) must lead.
Read Full Review >New York Daily News Jami Bernard
How dangerous it is to be a woman in Iran, especially one going against the wishes of her menfolk, is brought home time after time in these related vignettes.
Read Full Review >Baltimore Sun Michael Sragow
A terrific social drama, the work of an artist, not a pleader.
Read Full Review >New York Magazine Peter Rainer
In The Circle, which is banned in Iran, the enforced society of women is, in effect, a community of adults treated as children.
Read Full Review >New York Post Jonathan Foreman
This film is fighting the good fight, albeit in a rather heavy-handed way.
What Our Users Said
The average user rating for this movie is 9.2 (out of 10) based on 4 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.
Karen H. gave it a 9:
This movie was sit on the edge of your seat, squirm with discomfort, from beginning to end. The full horror of being a female in the society is forshadowed in the mother's (Fatemeh Naghavi) refusal to acknowledge her daughter had a girl baby.
Chad S. gave it an 8:
Your moral outrage grows stronger and stronger as these Iranian women bypass all the menfolk who don't need any adornment atop their heads. No pontification is needed, which director Jafar Panahi mostly avoids. Every second of this film is charged with politics but it never gets polemic. We want so badly for these women to get a taste of America, and conversely, we would like to see a reality program where Christina Aguilera has to spend one week in Iran. "The Circle", like "Kandahar", needs to be seen by both men and women who think America sucks. It doesn't.
Mani F. gave it a 10:
This movie is a real picture of people's lives wasted under the islamic repubilc's rule. However, this is not a propaganda film like "not without my daughter" this is the real thing!
