Load of rubbish!!

It was OK. I don't see why everyone loves it so much. It wasn't very smart or deep or well-directed.

This movie feels like it was made purely to piss off people who want good shows

By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

Artistic seen, it's a peculiar work of art: the movie doesn't stick to one character, but it rather unfolds the story through few characters that embody the one main figure on which the movie concentrates, namely, the woman or the fate of the woman in the Islamic Republic of Iran. The life span or the "circle" of the woman in Iran opens with her cursed fate of having been born as a woman, continues to her mature life in subjugating patriarchal society, being subjugated to the whims of her "masculine owner", and lastly closes with her being incarcerated for not gratifying her husband.The movie is so designed that only in retrospect it is fully comprehended - only by looking backward on the entire seen movie, it can be fully understood.Jafar Pahani has paid heavily for his uncompromising artistic work and courageous critique of the tyrannic regime - he was judged last year for 6 years in jail. After his release, he will never be allowed to leave Iran and to direct movies.

A potent movie, portraying much that is now common knowledge among informed westerners. What was very significant to me was the emotional response it was able to elicit in me despite my prior knowlege of the place women have in many muslim countries. Not only a combination of frustration, anger and despair at the gross injustice perpetrated against women, but the pervasive tension and paranoia generated by a police state.I thank my lucky stars that I live in the West, with all its foibles.

While Jafar Panahi's previous feature films dealt with children, with Dayereh he delves into the contentious issue of women's issues in a highly restrictive society, his native Iran. The film uses a narrative device that Tarantino might be proud to steal, with Panahi's camera following various women through their specific plights, often chasing them through the streets in handheld mode. At any moment, the camera may decide to follow a different character, and although the specific details of the various women's situations may differ, the oppression which is a part of their daily lives is consistently omnipresent. One feature of the film that is part and parcel of its roving camera approach is that there is very little in the way of exposition or denouement in any of the narrative threads. This however, seems to be the point of the entire exercise; in a society that treats women as a lower class of citizen, individual details and circumstances have no bearing on their ability to achieve anything without the presence or authority of a husband or father.veryday occurrences such as the purchase of a bus ticket to the simple act of smoking a cigarette in public can (and does) result in mandatory incarceration for any woman at any time. The structure of the film gives the impression that literally any woman you might bump into on the streets of Tehran is caught in such a comprehensively prohibitive society that could lead to what could only be considered unconscionable drama in Western society.Although there are no significant male characters in this story, Panahi uses the entire gender en masse to illustrate the peculiar double standards that have insinuated itself through the fabric of this society. Men are constantly harassing women with inappropriate lewd remarks to which there can obviously be no response to. Simultaneously, if a woman behaves in a manner anything less than perfectly virtuous, her liberty is instantly forfeit.In one scene, a woman starts to stand up for herself against a casually tossed piece of innuendo, and the audience can do nothing except anticipate the unjust retaliation that will surely be endorsed by the dozens of common passers-by. There are certain elements of the film that no doubt owe to the nature of making a film under these conditions; extras occasionally can't avoid staring at the camera crew, but strangely enough, this gives the film a feel of documentary film-making that somehow enhances the narrative. Nevertheless, there is nothing amateurish about the acting of the principal women, all of whom behave so convincingly that the film conveys a sense of constant danger. Furthermore, this nervous energy never lets up, as we move from story to story at a speed that allows us to experience discomfort, without reaching closure until the final scene, which in itself is a cause for distress.It is unlikely that Dayereh will ever be a very popular film, as it has many of the 'feel-bad' qualities of films such as A Time For Drunken Horses, with even less sympathetic sentimentality. On an even sadder note, Dayereh has been banned in Iran, where a film of this nature most desperately needs to reach an audience. However, this seems to be the underlying message of the film; not that there are a great many injustices against women occurring in Iran on a daily basis, but that there is no indication of how or when it will stop. Only why.

"The Circle" is a powerful study of the lives of Iranian women. Another user commented that this film had weak points and might bore some viewers. Part of its atmosphere is conveyed through it's slower-than-Hollywood, well-paced shots which allow the viewer to soak in the feeling of desperation of the women in the film. As the director said in his interview on the DVD version of this film, he does not shoot a film so that it pleases an audience. He is there to shoot a film and make a statement, which he does very well in this film. This is a thought-provoking, very well thought out study of a circle or chain of women who all have something in common, they have committed the crime of being female in Iran. Note how a driver late in the movie gets off scot free and the woman still goes to jail. This is a must-watch if you want a good example of the oppression of many women in that part of the world, not just Iran.