The Circle

Jafar Panahi, director of The White Balloon and The Mirror, returns with a half-satisfying feature which is, oddly enough, both aimless and didactic. Hopping Slacker-style from one Iranian woman to the next, all of whom are (surprise) oppressed in some way or another, the film is obviously meant as a cry of protest. But compared to The Day I Became a Woman, its terms are simplistic, its message unrefined. The film’s obvious passion carries it a ways, and Panahi’s actors are never less than engaging, but he doesn’t allow us to experience the connections between their stories organically; he’s thinking so much it doesn’t seem necessary for us to do so.

—Sam Adams

(See Sam Adams’ interview with writer-director Jafar Panahi.)

(Ritz at the Bourse)