Very very predictable, including the post credit scene !!!

Simply Perfect

Absolutely Fantastic

The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

This film is directed by the famous Iranian director "Jafar Panahi" who is in prison now because of his political beliefs. "The Circle" won many prizes in the international festivals such as "Venice Film Festival", "San Sebastián International Film Festival", "Singapore International Film Festival", etc. but The Islamic Republic government banned this film in Iran. "The Circle" criticizes the treatment of women in Iran. Panahi gives a chance to amateur actors to play the main roles in the film. All the actors are amateurs, except Fereshteh Sadr Orafai who plays Pari, and Fatemeh Naghavi, who plays the mother abandoning her daughter. I give to "The Circle" 9/10, because I think it has a realistic view to the problems of Iranian Women in my country.

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.

After seeing some excellent Iranian movies last year, I hurried to see this film and I was not disappointed after the screening: it is less poetic than the earlier ones but its simple, excellent story gives a very powerful account of women's life in Iran. This is a sad and rather hopeless life that starts with the unwelcome birth of baby girls, continues with abandoned girl children and culminates with the limited options and freedom women have in their life. We can watch not only how the tragedies of the the main female characters are unfolding but we can also see the humiliating way women are treated by men in their everyday life. I don't want to fall into the usual ignorant Western attitude towards Islamic societies, but this movie was made by Iranians, so it seems that even in Iran there are some people who think that something is wrong with the social status of women in their society.I also want to stress that the more I think of this movie, the more I like its film-making as well: the acting is excellent, the script is perfect (and even fast-paced, if you don't expect car races or fist fights as a proof of fast-pacedness...), every scene adds something new to the story. The film's message is conveyed to the viewer not only via the story itself: the photography, the close-ups and the cutting powerfully strengthens it.

A bleak movie that reminded me of Kafka. As a westerner this was a real culture shock, I had no idea why these three women at the beginning were so scared of the police - I couldn't work out what was going on, or even what the buildings were supposed to be.Gradually things start to make sense - it's hard not to watch this film without getting angry at the numerous ways that women are kept down in the society, often at the expense of men - for example, the "John" is let go, while the prostitute goes to prison, the women are continually subjected to harrassment from anonymous men in the streets, they are trapped by pregnancy and its consequences.I liked how cigarettes were used throughout the film - you don't often see Iranian women smoking - and while nearly all of the leads seemed to smoke, it wasn't until right at the end that one of them was actually allowed to smoke - a powerful image.The final part in the prison cell where everything falls into place is a moment right up there with the film La Kabina (The Telephone Box). Recommended.