The Circle & Contemporary Iranian Cinema

Banned & Censored Cinema

The Circle

Jafar Panahi, Iran, 2000, 90 min.

Iranian filmmaker Jafar Panahi (The White Balloon, The Mirror) takes a giant step forward with his third feature, shifting his focus from little girls to grown women and presenting such a scorching look at what they put up with in their daily lives that it's no surprise the film was banned in his native country. This masterpiece is radical in form as well: it begins one morning in a hospital and ends that evening in a jail cell, the camera revolving 360 degrees in each space, and its narrative passes from one character to the next as in Luis Buñuel's The Phantom of Liberty. - Jonathan Rosenbaum (Chicago Reader)

Iranian Noir? Featuring strong female characters--some fresh out of prison,--Panahi's film recalls the strong dark heroines of Classic Hollywood Film Noir. Utilizing a cast of nonprofessionals, ...

The most talented disciple of Iranian master Abbas Kiarostami, Panahi actually tops him at leaving things out of a story to tantalize the viewer; he uses these ellipses for political as well as aesthetic ends, trusting the audience's decency as well as its imagination. - J. Rosenbaum

For his examination of the plight of women in contemporary Iran, The Circle was immediately suppressed by Iranian censors and remains unseen in that country today.

In the plane from my window, I could see New York. I knew my film, The Circle, was released there for two days and I was told the film was very well received too. However, the audiences would understand my film better if they could know that the director of the film was chained at the same time.- Jafar Panahi

REQUIRED READINGS & WEBSITES

• Jonathan Rosenbaum, "Nobody Here but Us: The Circle", Chicago Reader (June 8, 2001), course reader and online
http://web.archive.org/web/20010618012958/www.chireader.com/movies/archives/2001/0106/010608.html

• Jared Rapfobel, "Don't Look at the Camera: Becoming a Woman in Jafar Panahi's Iran", Senses of Cinema (July 2001), course reader and online
http://www.sensesofcinema.com/contents/01/15/panahi_jared.html

• Jafar Panahi, "A Statement of Protest - Letter to the US National Board of Review of Motion Pictures", Senses of Cinema (July 2001), course reader and online
http://www.sensesofcinema.com/contents/01/15/panahi_letter.html

• Jonathan Rosenbaum, "Fill In The Blanks: Taste of Cherry", Chicago Reader (1997), course reader and online http://www.chicagoreader.com/movies/archives/1998/0598/05298.html