Rating: 
Summary: Panahi's Ghost
Review: One of the most exciting and original relationships between character and story that I have seen developed recently on film. Something truly strange and profound happens as one figure exits for another to enter, into a camera frame that moves and circles with genuine originality.For those coming to watch this film for its overt subject matter, it is understandable that you will be disappointed. Panahi's creation of the mysterious and mobile is a profound treatment of what is typically a heavy and distinct subject. Anticipating yet another rendering of Oppression as a monster, I was truly provoked and inspired to find it a ghost this time instead. - spc
Rating:
Summary: Bold, Courageous Take of Women in Middle East
Review: Thank heaven for foreign films as high quality as this one. If you are sick of silly Hollywood movies, this is a nice and refreshing look at how real filmmakers produce film. I took an interest in Islamic world after Sept 11, 2001. This film basically sums up oppression of women I have read in books about Muslim culture. The Director's interview in the DVD admitted that he hasn't watched foreign movies for at least the past 5 years, that when he makes film, he's not concerned with the box office or the audience, he makes the kind of film he likes. This film takes us through the plight of several women whose crimes are vague. The director cleverly shows us how these women are connected through a circle (in prison), the circular steps in the cinema & the road in front of the cinema, then how these women initially trying to run away from this circle (symbolic of the restrictions set upon women in Islamic society), then at the end realized that no one can really run away from the circle (back in prison again). The beginning and ending are quite neat. It brings back the unknown face Solmaz, from giving birth to a baby girl (women are doomed from birth), to being arrested and imprisoned at the end. The theme of the circle is shown throughout the film.
Rating: 
Summary: Definitely worth it
Review: The Circle is a movie that looks at the position of women in Iran. It tells of 9 women and their individual struggles- the story passes from one woman to the next. The movie is facinating, both from the perspective the individual stories as well as the realization about systematic oppression. It opened up my eyes to the life of women who go against the norm under authoritarian governments. Everything, from cinematography to plot is very different than Hollywood films- very refreshing! In arabic with white subtitles.
Rating: 
Summary: Pathetic & Miserable. But Changes are on the way!
Review: Think about the womenfolks in the Middle East and think about us. How lucky we are. Iran is a beautiful country full of wonderful country people. The people in that City are always cold and defensive like any other city in the world. Iran, the islamic fanatics hold hostage of the American Embassy not too long ago, now, women folks could vote, although not to many choices for the candidates, but at least it's a start. Democracy would not and could not be reached and accomplished so quickly, but it's a start. Please get the new movie "Secret Ballots" to get a newer version of this. You have to get the real meaning of the word, CIRCLE, to understand the real meaning of Islamic male and female way of thinking, since their lives, especial the female ones, are always a tight circle, getting out is always difficult.For the movie itself, it's an okay movie, watchable but not great enough to give high praises.
Rating:
Summary: Worthwhile but confusing film about women's lives in Iran
Review: This Iranian film, is banned in Iran, consists of several intertwining stories of women, all living the sad realities of the circle of life that traps them again and again. I understand it was filmed at night, in secret, using non-professional actors and smuggled out of Iran for the Venice Film Festival where it won the Golden Lion Award. The camera is obviously hand held as it follows these non-professional actresses around. Their faces shine out from their chadors - real, unpretty and blemished. One of the women has a huge discolored bruise on the her face. Another woman's face is deeply creased. There eyes are huge and expressive. The film begins with a woman's offscreen screams behind the title and credits. At first I think she is being tortured. And then there is a cry of a baby and we know she has just given birth. "It's a girl" says the hospital nurse to the grandmother who is immediately saddened. "The family will insist on divorce," she says. "They expected a boy." Thus sets the tone of the film which now shifts to three women huddled together in a phone booth desperately trying to call someone who is not at home. They are worried and afraid as they hide from authorities, especially since one of them gets arrested. It takes a while for the audience to find out that they have just escaped from prison. Their stories are never clear. We don't know what their crimes were. We don't know much about them at all. But we do follow them through the city as they try to cope with all the restrictions around them and interact with other women in equally awful circumstances. Without the proper papers, or without a man by their side, women can't travel. Certainly they can't raise a child alone. One woman tries to get an abortion but is turned away because she needs a husband's permission. One woman actually abandons her small daughter on a city street. The audience sees pieces of stories such as the woman who buys a man's wedding shirt although the audience never finds out what the back story is or who the shirt is for. And we never get to meet the woman who has borne the child in the first scene. The city is filmed as a bustling but hostile environment without any hope for these women. There is no joy in the film. Only sadness. And the script seems nonexistent with pieces of conversation that don't seem related to any of the stories. Everywhere there is misery without one bit of relief for the women or the audience. I saw this film in a theater and found it extremely difficult to watch. Indeed, so did other people because many of them just stood up and walked out. Without a specific story to follow, I felt strangely remote from what was happening on the screen. but perhaps that was the director, Jafar Panahi's intent. The film does work as a political statement but I needed more details in the script to be able to identify with these sad and remote women. This is obviously a worthwhile film, but it is just too confusing for my tastes.
Rating:
Summary: The LAW's life as 'law'
Review: This is a harsh film made up of several fractured stories that eventually come all together in showing the life at the fringes of the Iranian society. It's about women, as ever culpable gender, walking the dreary space they could carve around, and temporarily away from, the LAW. These women's short lives on screen, though different, have a lot in common in their moth-like gyrations. Additionally noteworthy are the few powerful sketches of men as accomplices, LAW enforcers, women abusers, LAW distorters (i.e. 'law' abiders). The viewer's rage is well controlled; all the tragic becomes chronic sadness. Iranian expats' opinions would be more than welcome! Just above mediocre transfer on DVD.
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Summary: When good intentions collapse
Review: This is an importnat and timely film, perhaps even more so now as Iran perepares for another crucial election in which moderate clerics will have to struggle against the conservative establishment, which refuses to note the calls for reform form the people. This film offers a valuable examinations of the current social and political situation in Iran. There was widespread hope that under President Khatami, Iran could have taken a more liberal course shedding by the wayside the conservative positions adopted by previous governments of the Islamic Republic. This has also been reflected in the emerging and highly acclaimed film industry, which despite its success, has tended to shun political themes. However, some signs of change are ther for those who observe carefully. In the case of Jafar Panahi's "The Circle" the political allusions are evident from the title, which serves as a metaphor for the narrative and for what Khatami's politics have so far meant to Iranians who had hoped for change, in other words their hopes have been invain.
Rating:
Summary: wonderful
Review: This is probably the best movie I have seen all year. It has such a string clear vision and it really sticks with it. Definately not for everyone, especially the impatient type. Much of the movie is extended shots of the women simply walking around aimlessly. It doesn't reveal everything immediately, and requires patience to discover who everyone is, and what they are doing. Also, the lack of any music may be unsettling for an American Audience accustomed to a sweeping score. It could easily bore many, but I was mesmerized.
Rating:
Summary: Wonderful, daring movie!
Review: This movie easily became of my favorites. Along with Abbas Kiarostami's "Taste of Cherry", this one of the most daring films to come out of Iran in recent years. Director Jafar Panahi skillfully depicts the ever worsening condition of Iranian women under the Islamic regime. This is a very realistic telling of the everyday lives of Iranian women, especially those who dare to defy the repressive measures they have been forced to endure in the past 22 years. This is one movie that does not stick to cultural relativism or try to give religious justifications for how the characters are treated. It shows each of the characters as human beings with dreams and aspirations who are trapped in circumstances beyond their control. No wonder this movie was banned in Iran by the Islamic republic's board of censorship. The cast is great, the dialogues are great and the overall setting is very realistic. The cinematography is also good. This movie may seem slow or boring to those who are not familiar with the current political setting of Iran. There are several intertwined stories in this movie and this may seem confusing to impatient viewers. Also, the subtitles are not great (as is the case with "Taste of Cherry".) * In Persian with English Subtitles
Rating:
Summary: Wonderful, daring movie!
Review: This movie easily became of my favorites. Along with Abbas Kiarostami's "Taste of Cherry", this one of the most daring films to come out of Iran in recent years. Director Jafar Panahi skillfully depicts the ever worsening condition of Iranian women under the Islamic regime. This is a very realistic telling of the everyday lives of Iranian women, especially those who dare to defy the repressive measures they have been forced to endure in the past 22 years. This is one movie that does not stick to cultural relativism or try to give religious justifications for how the characters are treated. It shows each of the characters as human beings with dreams and aspirations who are trapped in circumstances beyond their control. No wonder this movie was banned in Iran by the Islamic republic's board of censorship. The cast is great, the dialogues are great and the overall setting is very realistic. The cinematography is also good. This movie may seem slow or boring to those who are not familiar with the current political setting of Iran. There are several intertwined stories in this movie and this may seem confusing to impatient viewers. Also, the subtitles are not great (as is the case with "Taste of Cherry".) * In Persian with English Subtitles
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