original title:
Dayereh
italian title:
Il cerchio
directed by:
cast:
Fereshteh Sadr Orafai, Fatemeh Naghavi, Nargess Mamizadeh, Maryam Parvin Almani, Elham Saboktakin, Monir Arab, Mojgan Faramarzi
screenplay:
cinematography:
editing:
set design:
production:
Mikado Film, Lumière & Co., Jafar Panahi Film Productions
distribution:
world sales:
country:
Iran/Italy
year:
2000
film run:
90'
format:
colour
release date:
08/09/2000
festivals & awards:
Teheran today. Three women get out of jail more or less legally. They each make an attempt to resolve their affairs that were suspended when they went to jail and try to create a better life for themselves. They find that the reality different from how they imagined it would be. “Free” society is a lot worse than that found in jail where at the very least there is a sense of solidarity and mutual consolation amongst the prisoners.
In the outside world women are the victims of an Islamic legal and moral system. Male authority of every sort forces women to a state of abandonment at the very least, and more seriously makes them decide to abandon their children because they cannot bring them up properly on their own.
This is the fourth film of the forty-year-old film director who won the Golden Camera award in Cannes in 1995 and the Golden Leopard in Locarno in 1997. At last, Leone d'Oro at Venezia 2000.