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Circle, The
Winstar Cinema


9.2

based on 28 reviews
Read critic reviews
How did we calculate this?

based on 4 votes
Read user comments
Rate this movie

FILM:

Internet Movie Database

MPAA 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.

GENRE(S):	Drama
WRITTEN BY:	Kambuzia Partovi
DIRECTED BY:	Jafar Panahi
RELEASE DATE:	DVD: December 18, 2001 Video: December 18, 2001 Theatrical: April 13, 2001
RUNNING TIME:	90 minutes, Color
ORIGIN:	Iran / Italy
LANGUAGE(S):	Farsi (with English subtitles)

Also known as "Dayereh"

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...

100

Mr. Showbiz Michael Atkinson

Naturalistic, gritty, and unrelenting.

100

Philadelphia Inquirer Steven Rea

Quiet, rageful indictment of a two-tiered Islamic society.

100

Christian Science Monitor David Sterritt

Suspenseful and ingeniously directed.

100

Entertainment Weekly Lisa Schwarzbaum

Circles the heart of noisy, modern Tehran with an informal, documentary-like freedom that is thrilling in its naturalism.

The New York Times Dana Stevens

The political implications of the film are manifest, as is the quiet courage of making it.

Los Angeles Times Kenneth Turan

Restrained yet powerful, devastating in its emotional effects.

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.

Variety Deborah Young

Both fascinates and horrifies with its bold assertions about what it means to be a woman under a cruel, institutionalized patriarchy.

Washington Post Desson Thomson

A memorable and devastating indictment of the oppression facing many women in Iran.

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.

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.

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.

Seattle Post-Intelligencer Sean Axmaker

A mix of the poetic and the polemic, the film is oddly abstract and untethered.

TV Guide Ken Fox

This tightly structured, often exciting film is among the boldest in a series of increasingly explicit movies.

New Times (L.A.) Jean Oppenheimer

An extraordinary film from a born filmmaker.

Salon.com Stephanie Zacharek

The picture is so dramatically textured that you feel something's happening every minute.

Village Voice J. Hoberman

Panahi is a maestro of anxiety. Whatever its political significance, this is a dark, sustained, and wrenching film.

Rolling Stone Peter Travers

Panahi creates a raw, riveting film.

Washington Post Stephen Hunter

In its brisk way, it's a devastating piece of work, and very brave too.

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.

San Francisco Chronicle Wesley Morris

It's a startling, speedy, gracefully executed indictment.

Charlotte Observer Lawrence Toppman

A Kafkaesque series of interwoven stories that depict the hopeless lives half the populace there (Iran) must lead.

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.

Baltimore Sun Michael Sragow

A terrific social drama, the work of an artist, not a pleader.

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.

New York Post Jonathan Foreman

This film is fighting the good fight, albeit in a rather heavy-handed way.

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!

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Circle, The Winstar Cinema

Circle, The
Winstar Cinema