05/21/2002 Entry:
"The Circle - Jafar Panahi (2000)"

A very interesting and well made film from director Jafar Pahani. Once again, this suffered poorly from bein viewed on the train. I missed some of the elements from the beginning of the film wrapping up at the end because of the long gap in between viewing the two halves. Also there were some subtle changes in mood and approach throughout which I didn't immediately pick up on either. Thankfully, much of this was addressed and reprised in a long interview with Pahani, included as a bonus feature.

To me, the thing I appreciated the most about how the film was made is how the mood changes from beginning to end. Early on, while following Nargess, the mood is somewhat playful (or as playful as a film following an Iranian woman traveling illegal in constant danger of being arrested can be.) You can feel her innocence bursting out, feeling she can get out of a bad place. I was quite surprised that the actress playing Nargess (Nargess Mamizadeh) was a nonprofessional who had never acted before. As the film moves on to older characters, this life is vanguished. The camera slows down eventually becoming tripod-mounted, the streets get darker, the takes get longer. While we follow five women, you get the impression that we are really following the whole lifecycle Iranian women as a whole. The anguished, aged face of Nayereh is haunting. If she hadn't said a word, you could still tell that this was a person who had been battered by life and was ready to give up. Yet, in the end, she shows she still has at least a small spark left in her (although it could also be explained as survival instinct I guess.) Another quite moving and complex scene occurs when Pari meets her friend Elham trying to procure an abortion. Elham has created a new life for herself and doesn't want to get involved. Pari, while upset, understands and wishes Elham the best and leaves. You know these women each feel for each other, but you really get that sense of entrapment. There is only so much they can do.

In his interview, which is quite worth viewing, Panahi explains that rather than take a more heavyhanded approach (he uses the example of an execution,) he really wanted to show the day to day trials of just being a woman in Iran. I was hoping this interview could fill in some cultural gaps, which it did in some places and didn't in others. He says in the interview that he isn't really concerned with how foreigners will receive the film, which is fair enough. Still I found myself curious about so many things. When are the women forced to wear their chador and when aren't they? What is the deal with women smoking - social custom or law? What are the travel restrictions exactly? What are the women being jailed for? How do all these compare to the rules and punishments for men? So many gaps, I will be forced to dig up the information for myself, which in the end is probably a good thing anyways.

It is nice that the men in the film are not all portrayed as assholes. Many are sympathetic, and many more are siply trying to do their jobs or get by. Certainly some others are representative of the oppresive atmosphere, but it would have been so easy to cast the entire male cast
in a bad light to make a point. I very much like that Panahi resisted this.

As I watch more and more films from the Middle East, my interest in visiting there grows. This is quite an accomplishment, since I have always been somewhat of an ugly American type, opposed to leaving the friendly confines of the US (combined with a dire hatred of flying.) It just goes to show how good filmmaking can really expand your view of other cultures, bringing them closer to home. Rosenbaum has made the point that the current Iranian cinema shouldn't really be termed as "Iranian" at all since the themes covered are fairly universal. I can see his points, but there is definitely a style at work there which is being used to tell certain types of stories (just as Godard and Truffaut did in the 60s.) I kind of feel like NOT terming this as Iranian cinema is to do it a disservice, its uniqueness and greatness should be acknowledged as such. I am looking forward to getting the book Close Up, which deals with Iranian cinema. Of the five directors whose films I have seen, none has failed to be interesting, involving and moving, and I look forward to being introduced to even more work. I just hope I can actually see some of the films being discussed.